Halves
by AshNovember
Summary: Takes place a couple of years after Advent Children, with Sephiroth trying to become whole again. This is my first ever fic, so please don't be too rough on it, I'm clearing up factual errors as I go along. And theres a OC,please R&R, Updated! Chapter 26!
1. Chapter 1

"Halves"

"…..Neidelheim…"

He always says this.

"….Neidelheim…."

"What? I don't…"

"You me. Wake me up…I do tire of being asleep."

He makes you feel like he's the kind you'll do anything for. Like he'll MAKE you do anything.

"Who…"

"You'll know."

Can't look away. He's beautiful, he's so…terrifying. Those eyes…

"….Neidelheim…"

And that's the end…that's always the end. Waking up, it's almost like it didn't happen at all anymore. All that's left are those EYES.

She rolled out of her bed, stretched, and got ready to start her day. Washed out light filtered through the window, morning, time to start again. She was not having an easy time of that. She'd only been in Edge a few weeks, and between the dreams, and her lack of a job and a social life, it was like not being alive.

She clomped down the stairs, feeling like there were lead weights in her boots. Her roommate and cousin was at the table. The other girl raised an eyebrow at her.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked through a mouth of cereal.

"Eh, same old same old."

"More dreams?"

"Yeah."

She put down her spoon and got serious; she knew how these dreams were plaguing her little cousin.

"Remember anything else?"

"No. Just the guy with the eyes, and the word he says."

"No idea what it means at all?"

"Uh-uh. Neidelheim…what could it mean?"

"Don't know Hun, I'm sorry."

"Ah well," she sighed and sat down. "I have a job interview today."

"No way! Where?"

"That bar, in sector seven. Seventh Heaven I think it's called. Just a cocktail waitress thing."

"Well, it's a start!" She beamed at her.

"Yeah, it is!" She smiled back; maybe it wouldn't be a horrible day after all.

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She walked into the bar, and looked around kind of aimlessly. It was a little dark, but very homey looking for a bar. Dust particles drifted through the light coming through the slightly dirty windows.

"Hello?"

"Oh! Sorry, I'll be right out! Make yourself at home on a bar stool!" A cheery female voice called out from the back.

She walked over to a bar stool and hoisted herself on top of it. It wasn't exactly easy with the skirt she had on, but she made do. A very pretty, dark haired young woman emerged from the back room of the bar. She wiped off her hands on her apron and offered one.

"Hi! I'm Tifa, I own and run this place."

She took the slightly older girls hand. "Hi. I'm Seph…"

Suddenly Tifa drew a sharp breath. "I'm sorry…what was that?"

"Sephora. Sephora Rothschilde. Did I say something?"

"Oh...uh…"she seemed embarrassed."No…sorry about that."

Tifa conducted her interview with this girl…Sephora. Sephora Rothschilde, how weird is that? And to think she apparently didn't even know.

"So how long have you been in Edge, Sephora?"

"Oh, only a couple of weeks now. I'm from…well…I'm from away."

"Ok, I know what that's like."

She rambled on some more, and Tifa really took a look at her. That same look, that same cold, appraising beauty. She looked at everyone like she was better than they were, and she didn't even know it. There was a dangerous edge behind every smile, and she always looked like she was plotting. All she was missing was the hair…and the eyes.

"…Neibelheim?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I kinda zoned out there for a sec."

"Hey, no problem, sorry if I'm rambling. I just asked if you've ever heard of Neibelheim."

"Where did you hear that?" she asked with an edge in her voice.

"Oh, um, no where, just around. I don't even know what it is. Is it a word, a name, a place?"

"It's a place, sweetie. Just don't go mentioning it a lot around…ya know?"

"I'm sorry, is it a sore topic?"

"For some, yes. There was a terrible tragedy there..." She looked sad. "There's nothing there anymore for alot of people."

"Where was it?"

"A good day's car ride from here, to the south."

"Oh, ok. Just curious. So, do I have a job?"

"Well, I like you; I just have to run it by Cloud. If Cloud likes you, you're in!" She smiled at her.

"Great, when do I meet Cloud?"

"Right now."

They both turned. There in the doorway stood a more decent than average boy-man. Probably about twenty two or twenty three, tall, blonde, he had this ridiculous hair, actually. All spiky and weird, just all over the place. His eyes glowed, literally glowed blue.

Cloud had to take a breath for a second….this girl with Tifa…she had that look. That horrible cold, beauty, that evil lurking where no one would dare to look.

"Cloud Strife, this is Seph…."

Cloud completely lost himself for a minute, and finished her sentence "….iroth." The girl looked lost.

"No, Cloud. Sephora. Her name is SephORA. Sephora Rothschilde."

"It can't be…"

"It is. It's ok."

He ran a hand through his hair and smiled uneasily. "I'm so sorry Ms. Rothschilde."

"It's ok. Look, if my name reminds you of someone you'd rather not…"

"No no!" Tifa exclaimed. "We aren't NOT going to hire you cuz of your name!"

"Yeah." Said Cloud earnestly, "You seem nice enough. Sorry I freaked out on you. Long day."

"Oh, hey, no, I understand that." Said Sephora.

"So, if you can be back here tonight around eight, that'd be great!" Tifa said with all the enthusiasm she seemed to have.

"Awesome! I'm so excited! Thanks so much, Tifa, Cloud."

Cloud nodded at her as she ran out the door.

"Tifa…we might have a problem."

"Is it the name, or the passing resemblance?"

"Both. It CAN'T be a coincidence."

"It probably is. Let it go. If she turns out to be trouble, we'll let her go."

Cloud shrugged, he wasn't one to argue with a woman's intuition.

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"…Neidelheim…"

He always says that.

"…Neidelheim…"

"I know now."

"So come…find me. I need YOU."

"Wha…"

"Don't let him. He'll lie to you."

"I'm not…"

"You will. Neidelheim. Come to me…I'll show you….you'll never see again what I want to show you."

"…Neidelheim…"

"Yes. Good girl. Neidelheim."

He fades from view. Devastatingly, gorgeously beautiful…..scary. Those eyes.

Morning again, light filtering in.

Sephora wandered downstairs, still thinking about the dreams. Her cousin noticed her distraction. She looked at her and cocked an eyebrow.

"Dreams again, darlin'?"

"Yes, but I found out a little from Tifa."

"Really...what did you find out?"

"Apparently, Neidelheim was a city, and something really horrible happened there from what I could gather."

"Maybe you should go there, Sephora, maybe it's what you've been looking for."

"How can it be what I've been looking for...what would there be in a city I've never heard of for me?"

"I don't know...maybe answers. Sephora, you've been looking all your life for something that you aren't even sure of. You don't even know what it is, you just know something feels empty in you, and you feel a hole in your being. You've been having weird dreams about some "alluringly scary", as you put it, guy that's telling you to go to some city where something bad happened. I'm pretty sure you'd be safe there now. Why not give it a try?"

"Hmmmph...we'll see." She picked up her coffee cup. "I have to run. I told Tifa I'd come by and help her with some stuff at the bar."

"Have a good day, hun, see ya later."

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She walked into the empty bar, two kids were at a table, they looked at her like they were mildly afraid.

"Um...hi. I'm Sephora, I work here now." She smiled at them. The little girl started at her with big dark eyes and the little boy stared with amazed, terrified wonder. "Oooook..." She walked into the back room. Tifa was bent over getting something out of a box. "Um, Tifa, not to be rude, but what's with the kids?"

"Marlene and Denzel?"

"I guess, they looked at me like I was Satan reincarnated"

"They can be kinda skittish with new people. They were orphans. Our friend Barret adopted Marlene and she's staying with us, Cloud and I took in Denzel. A couple years ago he almost died of geostigma."

"Oh, god...I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't be," she smiled, "He's more than fine now!"

"Awesome then." She smiled at her. "So, what should I do?"

"If you could go help Cloud with the liquor, that'd be great."

"Do what with it?"

"Just put it away, we just got some new."

"Oh, ok. I just didn't see him behind the bar."

"Ah, well, he's good at hiding sometimes." She smiled wistfully.

Sephora walked back into the front room. The two kids were gone, she was glad for that, they were slightly creepy. She just stood in the middle of the room for a minute, hands on her hips...thinking of Neibelheim...the guy with the eyes. She sighed...she hated everything suddenly. She hated everything that was whole and good. It just filled her.

"Ahem."

She turned to see Cloud behind the bar. She didn't know he had been watching her. She scared him...a lot, and just then, when she had been standing there, she looked just like Sephiroth. Cloud didn't think she could be trusted. He pushed his hair back from his forehead.

"Sorry to scare you, but you kinda zoned out there."

"Oh, sorry, I was just thinking..."

"About what? Must be something heavy."

"Eh, dreams."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I don't want to talk about it though. It'll be ok."

"Ok, I'll respect that..."

He could get over the feeling, that someday, and someday soon, she would do something horrible to them all.

Later that night, as they were closing up the bar and that girl had gone home for the night, he and Tifa were closing up the bar. He suddenly put a hand on her arm.

"Tifa..."

"What?"

"Look at me."

She did, and she was taken aback. He had this deathly serious look on his face. Like he was ready to drop some major bomb on her.

"I do NOT trust that...girl."

"Sephora?"

"Yeah. Sephora."

"Cloud...it's just a name..."

"No, it's not just the name. Just the name I could forgive. It's that, it's the look. That killing look...and..." he sighed "I saw today that she dyes her hair. She has silver roots. She doesn't feel right somehow. And the last name...Rothschilde. Come on. Sephora Rothschild. Might as well be Sephi Rothschild."

"Cloud, you can't go looking for Sephiroth in everything. You'll go crazy. When will you stop blaming yourself and just let go?"

"I don't know Tifa...not until I know he's been stopped. That every course of action he can take has been ended. Maybe never..."

Tifa sighed and looked away. How could she ever have a family and a life with a man that wouldn't let go of a memory?

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	2. Chapter 2

That night, she had a blast at her new job. She laughed, she served drinks, she felt like a person for the first time in a long time. One of Tifas regulars, a beautiful young guy with fire-red hair exploding from his head, hit on her...incessantly.

As they closed up the bar, he stayed there, along with a bald guy in sunglasses without much of a sense of a humor, an older blonde guy with an accent, and a young, almost teenage girl. Tifa put a hand on Sephoras wrist as they did the dishes together. Sephora had been looking longingly into the other room, waiting to go join these people, especially the almost as gorgeous-as-dream-guy red head.

"Sephora, you should go out there."

"I don't know them."

"You don't have to. Just go, their nice people. Not only that, but I think someone has his eye on you!" She smiled at her slyly.

"The red head?"

"Well, yeah. That's Reno. Go on...and don't worry, he'll out talk you anyway."

Sephora smiled at her, "Thanks so much, Tifa, for everything."

"Not a problem."

Sephora headed into the other room, and sat next to this guy Reno." He put an arm around her.

"Heeelllooo." He smiled at her.

"Hey, I hear you're Reno."

"You hear right. And that's my partner, Rude."

"Partner?"

"We're Turks...but don't be scared"

"Ha, I'm not, believe me.", both she and Reno laughed.

And that was her first good night in years, laughing and being with people, just being happy. She knew it wouldn't last forever, but she lived in the moment. She also did notice that whole time she was with Reno and Rude, Cid and Yuffie, and Tifa, too, Cloud was no where to be seen.

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"...Neibelheim..."

He always says that.

"You know now...why are you not here?"

She was standing in a burned out waste land that used to be a city. The ground was black, there were skeletons of buildings all around, even the sky was a smoke grey color.

She was finally face to face with him. He was more amazing up close like this. He had amazingly long silver colored hair ("Just like mine was," she thought), and beautiful glowing jade colored eyes. He had kind of a long nose, and very fine features. It was like looking at an angel.

"I don't know."

"Hmm..." he looked at her quizzically. "What would make you come see me?" He stepped toward her, and she suddenly was aware of the rest of him. Probably good foot taller than she was and full of lanky powerful muscle. "Yes, good girl. Look at me."

She looked up at him.

"Come get me. Come bleed for me."

"Yes. I will."

"Good girl. I promise, you won't regret it."

She smiled brilliantly up at him, "I know."

"Don't forget, he'll lie to you."

She was still smiling. "I know.

"Remember...Neidelheim."

...Morning...She awoke with a clarity she hadn't had in months on end. She knew what she had to do. She almost ran downstairs after dressing

"Krissa! Krissa! I'm going! And I'm going now!"

Krissa looked at her like she was a crazy person. "Sephora, what are yo...?

"Neidelheim! I'm going, I'm going right now! I HAVE to! Alone!"

"Um, ok...good..." she heard the door slam and her bike rev up and drive away "...luck."

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Sephoras bike roared into the town she saw. It was dark now...probably two or three am. Tifa had said it would a day's ride. She made in less than a day, there was that. She looked around, it wasn't right. This looked nothing like the dream. She wondered if there was more to it. She looked toward the north, maybe that would be what she was looking for. She drove on.

Here it was. Her bike purred into a wasteland, dead, hollow shells of buildings, the dead, black ground, the swirling smoky sky. It was just like her dream. She almost broke into hysterics. Then she remembered what he said...

"...Bleed for me."

She took the knife out of her bag; she had made sure to be prepared. She was so ready to do anything for him...after last night. She felt like he was real, she felt so alive. She slowly sliced across her wrist, relishing the feel of the cold steel...as her blood hit the black ground...she felt something in her move...She tipped her head back, her eyes rolled back to show only whites.

"I came for you." She whispered...the last sight she saw before consciousness left was the dark, swirling sky, and she heard a breath...

"...Good girl..."

When she woke up, she felt an arm under her, holding her off the ground. Slowly, the face in front over her…no over her, came into focus. The angel features, the glowing green eyes, the amazing silver, gleaming hair. She smiled, she was whole.

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Note - I put in that part about Reno and the night at the bar to kind of give her a connection. I felt there should be a reason they would care she was gone, or who she was with, so I kind of tied her to Reno...


	3. Chapter 3

He stood up carefully, letting her support herself where she sat, and held a hand out to her, she took it, and he pulled her up and to him. He had pulled her right to his chest, and he placed an arm around her waist to steady her, and put another one behind her back. She was looking up into those eyes. How could she ever have been scared of him?

He gave her a devilish, handsome smile. "I'm Sephiroth."

"I'm…"

"You are Sephora. Sephora Rothschilde, you and I are bonded. I know you. I've known you since before you were alive."

"How? What I am!? Can you tell me?"

"Oh, yes. I can."

"I feel different."

"You're going to. Is there somewhere we can go? I really hate to stay here; I've been here for a couple of years now. I'd like a home, a bed, creature comforts."

"I'll give you whatever you want. You are what I need, Sephiroth."

"I know, its ok."

They walked off to her bike, for the long, quiet ride home.

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They drove for a few hours, until she came to another city. Sephiroth leaned forward slightly and whispered in her year.

"We need to stop here. At the next turn, make a right, two buildings down is an inn. We're going to stay there."

"Whatever you want." She meant it.

They pulled into the parking lot, and Sephora registered them, while Sephiroth mostly stayed out of sight. She was a little puzzled about this, but, what could she do. She wanted him to do whatever he wanted, whatever made him happy. He was amazing. He should always be happy.

They went to their little room, and he made himself comfortable. He slipped off the metal shoulder pads and the long, black leather coat he had on. Underneath, he had two black leather straps crisscrossing his chest and black leather pants. He kicked off his black boots and stretched out on the bed. He reminded her of a big, dangerous predatory cat. He smiled at her.

"Hello."

"Hi, there."

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing...everything...I'm confused." She looked down at him with a confused look on her face.

"Come here. I will explain it to you."

She smiled and hopped on the bed next to him. She was very careful not to touch him. It wasn't that she didn't want to, she did, he was beautiful, and everything about him screamed electricity. She was afraid to. She was afraid he wouldn't want to be touched, or that he couldn't really respond to it. She wasn't really sure how it worked when one was a creature brought to life with blood, and appeared from thin air.

He looked into her eyes, "For starters," he said gently," remember how I said we were bonded?"

She nodded gravely.

"We are. Very much so. I don't want you to be afraid, or think of less of yourself. But...you technically ARE me. You are part of me; made from the same cells I was made from, planted into someone else to carry you. You have power."

"What?"

"Sort of like a sister, but not really. You share certain parts of my DNA, but that's about it. I mean, I'm sure you have some of my power, and I know you've probably never felt whole. We were created by Shin-Ra in a lab, and lied to about who we are. We were part of an experiment to make humanity better...and they didn't want us to know. They didn't want us to be. But I do. I think you and I, and all of us with those alien cells, are superior. We should either be able to rule this world or destroy it; we should be able to bend these people to our will. They want to take our birthright, Sephora. Do you think that's right?"

"No...it's not. Why do they want to do that to us?"

"Because, they hate us. Why don't we hate them so much that we bring about their destruction? Let what they wanted to do fuel us?"

"You're right. You're always going to be right, aren't you?"

"Yes."


	4. Chapter 4

She couldn't take it anymore, she reached out a hand, let it hover near his collarbone, but was too afraid to actually touch him.

"No. It's ok." He took her hand and put it on him. "We were meant for this." he said gently.

She let out a stunned breath. Touching him was like having electricity run through you. He was so alive, so different from anything. It was like being in direct contact with an angel. Sephiroth smiled, leaned forward and gave her lip a bite. He pulled back.

"I'm a little rough." He pulled her across and onto him. He gave her a rough, almost painful kiss. It was like nothing she'd ever felt. He was alive, he was full of electricity. It was like being in direct contact with an angel. His tongue played across hers and she closed her eyes. She saw civilizations rise and fall. He pulled at her black tank top, ripping it a little, then sliding his hand under it. He gave her a little pinch and she thought she would melt"Oh my God."

"No…he has nothing to do with it."

Sephiroth moved his other hand up her shirt and slipped it over her head, she moved to accommodate. He planted little pleasure pain bites at her throat and her earlobes. Slowly, his hand glided down her body to the waist of her black pants. He unfastened the button carefully, holding her hands over her head with one hand. He bit her stomach to the right of her navel, then let go of her hands. He forcefully pushed her remaining clothes off. She looked up at him, a little scared, a little breathless.

"…wait…"

He wove his fingers together with hers and got in her face.

"I'm going to make you whole." he growled. She made a noise that was most likely an agreement and he pushed on. He then proceeded to do things she didn't even imagine were possible. Things she didn't think even existed. He gave everything to her. He showed her what it meant to feel whole; he connected her to everything around her, to her feelings. He made her complete for the first time in her life.

After it was over, she just kind of stared over at him.

"I can't even..." she started.

"Yeah...it's ok." He smiled at her, green eyes full of fire. "I haven't done that the last couple of times I've been alive. How do YOU feel?"

Sephora smiled at him, she did, in fact, feel different. She felt like she could do anything, any time she wanted to. She felt like she could take on the world, like she had all the power in the world. She just needed to stay with him. She suddenly remembered something she had been meaning to ask him, from her dream.

"Sephiroth?'

"Hmmm?"

"Who will lie to me?"

"I'm sorry?"

"In the dreams, you would tell me not to listen to 'him' that 'he' would lie to me. Who did you mean?"

"Cloud. Cloud Strife will lie to you."

"I knew there was something wrong with him. He acts odd around me. I don't like him."

"Good. Don't worry about Cloud. We'll take care of him..."

"So, what's next?"

"You'll see. Right now get some sleep; you might not do it again for awhile."

"Mmm, ok." She curled into his right side and drifted off. Sephiroth wasn't so lucky; he hadn't actually needed sleep in some time actually. It was part of his unique chemistry, he had come to believe. Soon it would probably be part of hers, too, just like the green eyes the joining of his cells had given her. This was a great plan; he couldn't believe he had come up with while he was, for the most part, dead. He had just been another swirling part of the Lifestream, but he was different, he was oh, so very special. He came up with a plan; he got in touch with another of Jenova's gifted children. One more endowed than Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo, but not quite his level. He found a lost child looking for a friend, a lover, a father, and he reached out to her. He smiled, thinking of his three disturbed, lovely, silver haired brothers, lost to the swirling glow of the Lifestream. He might just have to get them back. He rolled on his side and looked at the girl next to him, everything would work out, yes, everything would be fine. He watched her sleep through the night.


	5. Chapter 5

Sephora woke up the next morning looking into his face, his almost not real face. She wanted to reach out and trace his lips with a finger, or run her thumb across his eyelids. He held her in thrall.

"Sephiroth," she whispered, "I want to touch you so bad."

He smiled, "Oh, please, do."

"You weren't asleep?"

"No, not really. I don't really do what you'd call sleeping."

"So, what did you have planned for us today?" She asked, lazily running fingers through his hair.

"We're going to go get our little brothers."

"We have brothers?" She looked a little shocked.

"Well, I do. They can be yours." He stood up and started putting on his pants and coat.

She stood up after him and started hurriedly putting on her clothes.

"Where are they?" She asked him with some kind of desperation in her voice. He smiled inwardly, he like that. She probably should be a little scared.

"You'll see. Have you ever been to the Ancient City? The Forgotten Capital?"

"Uh-uh." She shook her head gravely.

"Well, you'll love it." He smiled reassuringly, took her hand, and led her away, loving the sensation of power he had over her. He knew he had done just what he needed to to keep control over her.

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Reno burst through the door of Seventh Heaven, "Issn't she back YET!!?"

"No, Reno. I don't thing she's coming back." replied Tifa from behind the bar, a little sadly.

"Not COMING BACK??? Sure she is! She likes me!"

Cloud was leaning against a wall, looking like he knew it all. "I TOLD you guys she was trouble."

"Not coming back for Reno is hardly trouble. That's actually avoiding trouble." she smiled at the red head.

Reno stuck his tongue out at her.

"You'll see," Cloud grumbled, "She'll be back and she'll bring trouble with her."

"Cloud…" sighed Tifa. She still wasn't sure what to do with him. She wanted to make him trust people, but wasn't sure how. She wasn't even sure how to approach it, and until she knew Sephora was alright, and not bringing trouble home with her, she thought it might be safe to let him worry.

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Sephora looked around, incredulous; she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Glowing white trees that looked made of glass, houses of giant shells, and In the middle of it all, a big lake. It was beautiful.

"What is this?"

"Are you familiar at all with the Cetra?"

"A little, I know that they were the ancients. A nomadic people looking for a promised land they never found before they died."

"Very good," he smiled at her, "you know all you need to. This is their capital city, more or less. There's actually a shrine underneath this."

She bent down and put her hand in the water. "Why are we here again?"

"To bring back our brothers. You want to see them, don't you?"

She beamed up at him. "Of course!" she gave him coy look, "If they're anything like you…I'll do anything to see them."

He waded waist deep into the water and held out his hand to her. "Come on, this is one more step towards being whole."

She took his hand and waded into the cool water. Sephiroth reached for his sword.

"Sorry to do this, but this is going to hurt just a little."

He drew the blade of his huge sword across the soft flesh of her inner wrist. She drew in a sharp breath. Before she knew it, he had cut his own wrist and was pressing it against hers. He then grabbed the back of her head and violently kissed her as he held the joined wounds under water. The beautiful clear water of the pool swirled, darkened, turned black. Whirlpools formed on its surface, waves started lapping against them. It was over before she even had any idea what was happening, and 3 young, silver haired men were floating on the black surface of the water. Sephiroth broke the kiss, took her hand, and lead her to them.

"Help me with them."

She took hold of the littler one, the one with medium length hair, and started guiding him to the edge of the pool. When she got there, she pulled him out and looked over at Sephiroth.

"Now what?"

"Just sit there with him until he wakes up. Be careful though, he's most likely going to be scared, and he might do something. Kind of like a frightened animal trapped in a corner."

"Ok." She started stroking his hair, and running her fingers over his features. He was quite pretty, and young, probably only seventeen or so. He had Sephiroths silver hair. He had the fine, pretty, angel features, too. "What's his name?"

"That one is Kadaj."

Sephora smiled down at him. "Kadaj…" she whispered, and, at that moment, as though all he was waiting for was to be called to, Kadajs eyes flew open, and as predicted, he panicked.

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Note - sorry to take so long to update. Works been killer lately and I just haven't had a chance to! Hope everyone likes this chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

He took one look at Sephora and backed away as fast as he could.

"What the HELL is going on!!? Where are Yazoo and Loz!? Where's MOTHER???!"

Sephora reached out for him, just to comfort him, and Sephiroth stopped her.

"Let me…" Sephiroth reached out and put his hand on his little brother's shoulder. "You said you had never met me. I'm letting you. Now calm down."

Kadaj looked at him with instant recognition. "Sephiroth??" He threw his arms around his older brother. "Sephiroth!!? I've always wanted to meet you! I know Mother wanted you more, but I just wanted to make you both happy! I wanted you both to be proud of me!"

Sephiroth was clearly taken back by the show of emotion, he wasn't used to that, but Kadaj was clearly lost, and looking for reassurance.

"It's ok, Kadaj, I am proud of you, and so is Mother, everything's ok."

He pointed at Sephora, looking at her like she was an interloper in his time with his big brother. "Who is SHE?"

"That's your big sister, Sephora."

"A sister?" He lunged at Sephora and hugged her, "I'm sorry! I didn't know about you!" He laughed up at the sky, "I'm so happy!" He looked at Sephiroth. "Brother, are we going to take care of it…together? Finally??"

"Yes, Kadaj, but you have to calm down. We have to do things in an organized way, ok?"

"Ok."

A very calm, mellow voice spoke up from behind them, "Brother?" Followed by a gruffer voice, equally as lost and scared, "Brother?"

Sephiroth turned around, "Yes."

They looked at him stunned.

"And this is your sister, Sephora."

They stared at him, and then hugged him desperately.

"Ok, ok, Yazoo, Loz, its ok."

Sephora was still hugging on Kadaj, she smiled at him, "I think you're my favorite."

Sephora and Sephiroth lead Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz out of the pool. Sephiroth left with her bike to find a car to get all of them where they needed to go, giving Sephora time to get to know the "kids" a little better. She really did like Kadaj the best, she thought. Loz seemed kind of...not all there, and Yazoo...Yazoo seemed kind of drugged all the time. Kadaj was alive and crackling, ready to take on anything. His mind was clear and focused; he seemed to be the perfect little version of Sephiroth. Even if he was a little bit of a maniac.

Sephiroth appeared in front of them. He took Sephoras hand, pulled her up, and lead her away a little.

"How's it going?"

"With the kids? Swimmingly. They seem fine for the most part. Loz seems a little, I don't know, crazy, and Yazoo seems a little bit…out of it. Kadaj is really sweet, seems the most like a very lost little boy. It's like he's just been looking to make you happy. I feel bad for him the most."

"Well, he'll be fine now. He's just been waiting for me for awhile. We'll take care of him, we'll take care of all of them, they can help us." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Right?"

She smiled at him. "Of course, Sephiroth, you're always right."

He smiled back, "Of course I am." He started walking away, "Come on, we're going home."


	7. Chapter 7

They pulled up in front of her place in the car Sephiroth "found". Sephiroth, Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo were all scrunched down in their seats.

"What are you guys doing?"

Sephiroth looked at her from his place halfway on the floor. "Not everyone is going to be happy to see us."

"Umm...well...how do I get you in the house?"

"We can manage that. Are we there?"

"Yeah."

"Ok," he put his hand on the door handle.

"Um...Sephiroth?"

"Hmmm?"

"I kind of have a roommate…"

"Oh…well…has she ever mentioned me? Or anyone that COULD possibly be me?"

"I'm gonna go with a no there."

"Ok then. Where do you stay?"

"Room upstairs, second door on the right. You can probably just sneak in and go up there. I'll distract Krissa."

"Ok, good idea. You go first." He reached around to the back and shook the boys. "Kadaj, Loz, Yazoo, after Sephora leaves, we're going in that house. We're going upstairs and going into a room. We're going to be very quiet, ok?'

Kadaj looked at him sleepily, "Ok, brother."

Sephiroth looked at Sephora, "Go."

She nodded and got out of the car, highly nervous. She burst in noisily and barged into the living room, watching for the guys to go behind her.

"KRISSA!!" She yelled at her cousin and hugged her as she sat on the couch.

"Oh, my god, Sephora," the other girl hugged back "I thought you'd never come back! Where have you been!? What did you find out!? Tell me everything!"

"I'd love to tell you everything right now, but I can't." She broke the hug and backed away. "I have guests upstairs. I'll be using your guest room for a few of them. Can you do me a big favor and just PLEASE don't bother them or go into that room…please?"

"Um…sure thing, I guess." She looked at her puzzled. "Are you going to tell me what this is about?"

"If I can, as soon as I get everyone settled in." She quickly made her escape upstairs. She got herself in her room and leaned against her closed door and let out a relieved sigh. "That went better than I thought it might." She looked at the "kids" sitting on the floor, looking at her. "You three are going to stay in the next room. It's a guest room, and I know my cousin won't bother you. She promised me she wouldn't." She walked over to Sephiroth, and put a hand on him. "YOU are staying in here with me."

He smiled up at her, "I wouldn't have that any other way, ya know."

"I was kind of hoping that."

--------------------------------------------------------

Later that night, Sephora was sitting cross legged on her bed, looking at Sephiroth, all stretched out and giving her that feline impression again. He looked at her.

"Did you need something?" he asked a little coldly.

She was taken a little aback at how he said it. "Um...no, I guess not. Sorry if I'm bothering you."

"I'm thinking. I'm trying to plan things out a little. So, yes, you are a little distracting, staring at me like that."

"I'm sorry." She looked at him sadly, almost disappointed.

He smiled, seeing the power he had over her now. She'd do anything for him now. "It's ok. Sorry to be so abrupt with you. Did you have to work tonight?"

"I doubt I still have a job."

"If I know Cloud, Tifa, and the little 'gang' down that way; and I do; then they'll just be happy to see you're ok after you've been away for so long. The night's early, you should go down there. At least just to check in with them. I don't want to give them too much of a reason to be suspicious."

"I guess I can do that." She touched his shiny silver hair..."I kind of wanted to stay with you though, Sephiroth."

He smiled. "When you come back, I'll be much more receptive, how's that?"

"Perfect!"

Sephiroth gave her an approving gaze as she left. Everything was falling perfectly into place. It wouldn't be long now.

---------------------------------------

Note -

Anyone else REALLY glad that the holidays are over?

Sorry for the long wait between updates. Hope everyone had a good holiday season! And if you're on myspace, you should probably check out the group sephirothforpresident, I hear its kinda cool


	8. Chapter 8

Sephora stepped into the bar after days of being gone. All activity stopped, and all eyes were suddenly on her, appraising her, seeing if anything was wrong. Tifa suddenly rushed to her and hugged her.

"Oh my god! Sephora! I'm so glad you're back! We were so worried about you!"

Sephora gave a weak little smile. "Sorry, had some stuff to straighten out. Do I still have a job?"

Tifa hugged tighter. "OF COURSE you do!! We're just glad you're ok!"

She felt a hand on her arm.

"Geez, Tifa, let go, don't squeeze her to death."

Sephora smiled a little as Tifa let go. It was Reno; she turned to him and smiled. "Hey, there."

He smiled back. "Hi. So, where have you been? And are you ok?"

"I just had stuff to take care of. I'm fine, I promise."

"Well, good." He drew the word out, "Because if I found out different..."

She just smiled at him, truly doubtful this tiny little creature could harm a hair on Sephiroths body. He was very sweet though, and highly good looking. She smiled and thought of Sephiroth, she couldn't wait to get home to him, to make him happy. He was so perfect, so devious, and so wonderful. The two of them could use Reno as a toy. That'd be fun.

She hung around at the bar for a little while longer, she would have worked, but Tifa insisted she didn't need to, as the night was almost over, and Sephora was almost definitely exhausted from whatever she had gone through recently. On her way out, she gave Reno a peck on the cheek.

"Might as well let him think he can..." she thought.

Upon returning to her house, she found it mercifully dark and quiet. She didn't really feel like facing Krissa tonight, with relatively few answers about her mysterious house guests. She started to her own room when she saw a light from under the door of the room the boys were staying in. She decided she should probably go check on them. She approached the door and heard talking, soothing voice, calm tones. She gave a little knock.

"Hello?" Nothing from in the room. "Guys, its Sephora, its ok."

"Come in." That had to be Kadaj.

She walked in, Yazoo and Loz were on the floor, and Kadaj had apparently commandeered the bed. She sighed.

"Kadaj, you're going to share, right?"

"Only if I have to."

She nodded, "Yeah…you do."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine…"

"Go to sleep ok? Lights out now."

"Fine." He said again, begrudgingly.

"Thanks." She watched as Yazoo and Loz joined him and they all lay down. She flipped off the light. "Good night, guys." She heard them mumble good night. She walked back to her room, an opened the door to Sephiroth lounging on the bed. How lovely.

"So how did it go?" He asked her casually.

"Fine. You were right, again. They were just happy to see me alive and well." She sat next to him and absently started tracing some invisible design on his arm. "Reno was there."

"Oh?"

"Yeah...he likes me. I thought you might find that useful. I don't know why."

"That's very useful. We could use that. How was Cloud?"

"Honestly, I didn't see him. Of course, I wasn't really looking for him. I told you, I don't like Cloud, Cloud doesn't like me."

"From now on, you pay attention to Cloud. It's very important," he said, quite harshly.

She looked at him, almost in tears, "I'm sorry."

There it was again, he had her right where he wanted her. "Hey, it's ok. You know now, and you won't make the same mistake again, right?"

"Right," she still didn't look convinced.

He put a finger under her chin and tipped her head up. "I said its ok." He bit her lip. "See?"

She ran her hand down his back, loving the feel of him. The way he made her feel. It was magic, or poison, or lord only knows, but she was so happy and whole with him. She didn't care about wrong and right with him, only what he thought, and what felt good. He spent the night making sure she was still in his thrall.

--------------------------------------------------

The next day, Tifa was upstairs at the bar, sitting on a bed, telling Cloud the news.

"You missed it," she said smiling.

Cloud just looked at her puzzled.

"Your favorite person came back."

"That girl?"

"Sephora, she has a name. And yes, she's back. Alive, well, and not seeming to drag trouble behind her…unless, of course, you count Reno."

"I don't buy it, Tifa. Something feels wrong, and it has for a few days now. I keep having these dreams. Sephiroth is there now. It's wrong, it's very wrong. I wouldn't even know where to look for him..."

"Cloud, he's gone. He's a memory and you're the only one holding on to that. Stop. Please."

"You'll see. I'm not wrong about this." He turned abruptly and left.

"Oh Cloud...when will you see?"


	9. Chapter 9

Sephora woke up that morning with a renewed sense of purpose. She needed to make up for disappointing Sephiroth. Even if he said it was ok, she felt like it wasn't. She heard a timid little knock on the door. Pulling herself up, she slipped on her robe and walked over the door, she opened it a crack and saw Kadajs little face looking at her.

"Good morning, Kadaj. What's up?"

"Is brother still here?"

"Yeah, he is. Why do you ask?"

"I want to know if he's going to let us go out. I want to see Cloud,"

"Ug, everyone with Cloud..." she sighed, "Head on in, I'm gonna go downstairs for a few minutes."

She let Kadaj in and walked down the stairs. She put her hand to her mouth, she still felt Sephiroth there. He was so amazing. He filled her, he completed her totally. She had to talk to her cousin today...she wasn't looking forward to it, but it was just what she was about to do. Krissa was in the kitchen; she looked at her and tilted her head.

"Why are you holding your mouth?'"

Sephora started a little, she didn't realize she was still doing it. "Uh, long story, sorry."

"Yeah, that seems to happen a lot lately." She rolled her eyes.

"Look, I'm going to tell you a little, but I don't know if I can tell you the whole story. I'm sorry, that's the best I can do."

"Fine," she sat down at the kitchen table, "Let's hear it."

"Ok, it's like this. I've got four houseguests upstairs. Three of them are kind of young; one of them is...THE guy."

"The guy?"

"Yeah, from the dream."

"Oh...I see. Well, what's he like?"

"Amazing, and you'll get to talk to him as soon as he's ready for that, I swear."

"Sephora, what do you want from me?"

"Just to leave them alone, and let them do their own thing, ok?"

"Fine. And I won't even ask any questions about how you found him in the first place, or how it turned out he was a real guy." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't like how you're acting though. You're being all secretive and weird, and that's not you. I'm a little worried."

She smiled. "Don't be, I'm fine, I swear."

Krissa stood up and hugged her little cousin, who was as close to a little sister as she had ever come. "Just don't do anything stupid, ok?"

Sephora hugged back, "I'll try." She removed herself from her cousins hold. "Don't worry." She said again, and started back up the stairs. Upon entering her room, she just stood and looked at Sephiroth for a minute.

"What?" he asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"Nothing. I'm just looking at you...and wondering what comes next, that's all. I don't know what you have planned, and it kind of scares me honestly."

"Oh..."

"What did you tell Kadaj?"

"About?"

"Cloud."

"I told him to follow you."

"What?! How can you tell him to follow me?! You're the one that said they wouldn't be happy to see you! What's he supposed to do, follow me in and tell them his name is Dakaj?"

"No, but I do like that. Dakaj, Azyoo and Zol." He smiled at her.

"Ha, ha, ha."

"Don't do that. Look, Kadaj is just going to follow you, he'll be quiet, he'll be out of the way, he won't follow you in. He Just wants to see what's going on. Get a feel for the situation. Things have changed, and when I put my plan into action, I want to be ready. And free of any distractions. Much like Cloud, he's a distraction, and he could ruin everything."

She smiled at him, coyly. "Oh, you evil..."

He made a motion for her to join him. She sat next to him on the bed, and he put his hand on the back of her neck.

"I have plans for you, too, you know."

"Do you?", she ran a hand through his hair absently.

"Yes. Work the inside for me. Tell me everything that's going on. Don't let them know I'm around, or that you know me. Be a perfect little friend for them. Be my little spy."

"I can do that. I'd be awesome. I'll never let on."

He looked her right in the eyes. "I'm sure." Something suddenly came to him. "Hey, why haven't they noticed the eyes yet?"

"Hmm?" She shook her head; she had felt hypnotized by him.

"Your eyes. Didn't they notice?"

"Nobody said anything. I think they were just glad to see me back safe, and Cloud wasn't there. If they mention it, I'll just tell them I had contacts before. Blue contacts, because I never liked my weird ass green eyes."

"Ah, I see. Good girl." He pulled her to him and gave her a kiss. He smiled to himself, he had been right, this girl was perfect. She suited his needs just like he planned.

-------------------------------------------------------

That night, she sat in the car with Kadaj, before going in the bar. He was looking down at his lap, with a look that was half anticipation, half reprehension.

"Kadaj, what's the matter?"

"Nothing," he didn't look up.

"No, what's the matter." She put a finger under his chin and made him look at her. He looked clearly distraught. "Oh...hey...no, really..."

"I just want brother to be proud of me."

"He is proud of you, Kadaj. Yazoo and Loz, too."

"No, he's not." He looked up and steeled his gaze. "I'll give him a reason to be though. I'm going to help him; I'm going to do whatever he wants me to do."

"What does he want you to do tonight, Kadaj?" She was a little worried about what he might get into.

"...nothing."

"Kadaj. You can tell me."

"He doesn't want me to. He doesn't know if you're ready."

"Kadaj, I'm ready."

He looked at her hesitantly. "Are you sure? Are you loyal to us? To him?"

"Yes. You're my brother. And him...I love him. I'll do anything for him."

"Fine. He wants me to kill anyone that comes outside."

"Anyone?"

"Yes. Especially Cloud. I'm supposed to take Cloud by surprise, while he doesn't have his sword. Or matria, and while you're energy is blocking hers."

"What? Who? Who's energy?"

"HER. The ancient. With all her good, white energy."

"He hasn't told me about that."

"He probably will. But I can't tell him what to do."

"I know. Don't worry about it, but don't tell him you told me, Kadaj."

"Oh, I won't. He wouldn't be happy."

"It's ok; just...stay put and be good. If you're going to kill Cloud, try to do it quietly and without getting caught...and don't get any on ya... Please."

He smiled, "I will."

Sephora gave him a hug. "Good. I'll see you in a bit."

He hugged back, almost desperately. "I hope so."

She got out of the car and slunk into the bar, almost hoping no one saw her. Of course, this was not to be.

"SEPHORA!!!"

Well, of course, it just HAD to be him. She held out her arms to accommodate him.

"RENO!!"

She threw a smile to Tifa over his shoulder.

"Glad to see you! What's up?"

"Um, well...I thought I might head to work, if that's ok?"

"Ohhhh yeah...sorry." He let her go, "Well, hey, we should hang out or something after?"

"We can, a little. We'll see how tired I am, ok?"

"Sure thing."

As she turned to go behind the bar, she saw the back of Cloud on his way up the stairs. Suddenly, she FELT Sephiroth in her...commanding her. 'Go,' the thought told her, 'Let him know about what's coming for him.' She took her place behind the bar and pretended she didn't see him Tifa was a little distracted, so Sephora decided now was the perfect time to do as she was being told.

"So, where's Cloud?"

"Cloud? Oh, he's around somewhere. I'm not quite sure, he might even be upstairs. I know he's here though. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was thinking...maybe the two of us got off on the wrong foot. I'd like to apologize to him.

"Awww, well, you should go find him, and tell him that." She smiled.

"Awesome. I'll go do that." She turned away. She smiled to herself. She'd get this done for him, if he needed it done. Need be, she'd help Kadaj get it done. She called back to Tifa "Do you mind if I go upstairs and look?"

"No, go right ahead."

Sephora headed upstairs with nothing but bad intentions on her mind. She found Cloud in an upstairs room, alone. She quietly snuck in behind him and closed and locked the door.

"Cloud?" She said in a low, almost unintelligible voice.

He turned around with a start. "What are you doing up here?" He started backing away, feeling something was wrong.

"That doesn't matter..." She went toward him, not backing off until she had him pressed against a wall. "He's here. He told you..."

"Who? Who's here?"

"Don't do that. You know...he's still in all your nightmares." She smiled up at him.

"You don't know what you're talking about." He turned his head away from her.

"He told you...he said he wouldn't be a memory anymore. And he's not."

Cloud grabbed hold of her shoulders and shook her, "WHERE IS HE?!"

"Coming Cloud... He's going to do it this time." She shook herself out of Clouds grasp, and just turned and walked out.

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Note - I always felt like Kadaj basically just wanted Sephiroth to like him, and to be proud of him and everything he did. He just seemed like an insecure younger brother looking for approval from his "cool" older brother.

And Reno always seemed like he would persistantly hit on anything he thought should like him :-)


	10. Chapter 10

"Sephora! Sephora!!! COME BACK HERE!!! TELL ME WHEN HE'S COMING!!! TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" Cloud ran after her, and half tumbled down the stairs. The commotion of Cloud falling down into the bar, screaming, was enough of a distraction. Sephora slipped out the door as everyone was paying attention to him.

Out on the street, she had to step for a second in the alley next to the bar. What was all that about? He had never done that before! Was the need to please him so strong that he just took over all thought for a minute? It didn't really matter; she had only said the truth. She looked around for her brother. She saw a movement in the shadows and made her way toward it.

"What's all the yelling about?" A low voice asked her.

"He made me do something...I think. Either way, we HAVE to leave right now, Kadaj!" She took hold of his arm and started leading him towards the car.

"But...I haven't seen Cloud..."

"Trust me; you do not want to see Cloud. You do not want Cloud to see us. We have to go talk to your brother, NOW!"

Kadaj just looked at her strange as she shoved him in the car and they sped away.

-------------------------------------------------

Back in the bar, Tifa was helping Cloud up as he raved on about Sephiroth, Sephora, her knowing where Sephiroth was. Everyone was staring at him, looking at him like he had lost it. She helped him up.

"Come on, we're going upstairs." She helped him upstairs, and as soon as they were safely closed in a room, she started the questions. "What was that all about Cloud?"

"Did you know Sephora came up here?"

"Yeah, she said she wanted to talk to you. She thought you guys started on the wrong foot, and she wanted to apologize to you, I guess."

"Yeah, well, that's not exactly what happened. She trapped me up here and told me that Sephiroth is coming. She actually told me what he said when I defeated him last time..."

"What was that?"

"That he wouldn't be a memory anymore..."

"And she said this?"

"She told me he was still in all my nightmares."

"Cloud...I think you might be projecting on her just a little bit."

"I am not, Tifa. And when I track her down, and find him, you'll know that I'm not." He stormed passed her and left the room.

----------------------------------------------------

Sephora and Kadaj rushed into the house. She pushed Kadaj toward the stairs.

"Kadaj, go upstairs, lock yourself in with Sephiroth, and do not tell him anything until I get there. I'll be right up, ok?"

"Ok."

"Don't worry, everything will be ok.' He ran upstairs and Sephora ran off the other way to find Krissa. "Krissa!! Krissa!!? Where are you!?!"

"I'm down here!" A worried voice came from the basement. "What's wrong?"

Sephora half ran down the stairs, taking care not to fall. It reminded her of Cloud, chasing her down the stairs, and she was worried again. She had no idea where it all went next. Krissa took one look at her and realized something was definitely not right in her cousin's world.

"No, really…Sephora….what's wrong?"

"Can you do me another no questions asked favor? This is a REALLY important one, too."

"Maybe, what is it?"

"If anyone comes looking for me, even someone from work, don't tell them I'm here. As far as you're concerned I've never been here." She thought about it for a minute, "Wait, scratch that. If it's a red head…and I mean a ridiculously red head, tell him I'm here, but only if he's alone. He's a turk, his names Reno. He can know I'm here."

"Sephora, why are you getting mixed up with a turk?"

"I'm not, but I have a feeling something really big might be going down, and I'd like you to not be a part of it as much as possible."

"Does this have anything to do with your weird little houseguests up there?"

"I'm not sure, entirely. I think so. But leave them alone, it's not their fault, entirely. Just please, do this for me."

"Ok, fine. You aren't here unless it's a little redhead named Reno."

Sephora hugged her cousin. "Thank you so much!" She took back off up the stairs.

Krissa sighed, "I hope that girl knows what she's getting into."

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Sephora closed the door behind her, turned around, and was face to face with Sephiroth, staring into those jade eyes.

"What did you do?"

"Sephiroth…I just…"

"No….what did you DO, Sephora? And what are you planning to do ABOUT it?"

She sat on the bed next to Kadaj and looked up at him.

"Fine…I freaked out on Cloud. Badly. I heard your voice telling to get him alone and tell him things. I told him you were coming. And that he was going to get what was coming to him basically."

"I see. Are you sure you were alone when this happened?"

"yes. I had him cornered upstairs. Tifa thought I was going upstairs to apologize to him."

Sephiroth smiled, "Well, this might not be such a bad thing after all." He sat next to her. "What happened next?"

"Well, Cloud flipped out, started yelling at me, demanding to know where you were. I left him in the room, and went downstairs, and he almost killed himself following me down them at full speed. I'm pretty sure they all think he's crazy. But then, I'm also sure he'll be looking for me. Therefore, I told my cousin that if anyone comes looking for me at work, that I'm not here. She hasn't seen me."

"Good job…."

"One thing…I did tell her that if Reno showed up, to tell him I'm here…"

"The turk???"

"Yes, but calm down. I have a theory here. I figure that…well…everyone thinks you're dead, right?"

"Well…yeah. They do."

"Ok, if they think you're dead, then they think Cloud is crazy for looking for you. For even thinking about you. So, Reno is going to check up on this little girl he likes, to make sure his insane friend didn't hurt her, or scare her. So, I just make sure that Reno is CONVINCED, totally, that Cloud has lost it. And he's not going to be hard to convince, I don't think."

"Sephora!"

"What? Was I wrong?"

"No…that's pretty well played, actually." He gave her another one of those smiles, "Good job." He gave her a kiss, and turned to Kadaj. "Go in your room, and tell Loz and Yazoo what happened. I'll come talk to you guys later. You did well today, too, Kadaj."

"Thanks. I'll see you later."

Sephora waved to him as he left. After the door was safely closed and locked, she went back to him on the bed.

"I have a question."

"Hmmm?"

"Why don't we let Loz and Yazoo out like we did Kadaj today?"

"Because I don't trust them, that's why. Kadaj…he can be quiet. He's much better at giving and taking orders. Loz and Yazoo…they're reckless. They can fight like you wouldn't believe, but discretion is not their thing, unfortunately."

"That makes sense."

"Don't worry, their time will come."

"Ok, then. Whatever you think is best. Now, on to tonight. Did you make me do that?"

"It's just, I felt you. I felt you in me, almost. Like you were in control, and I wasn't."

"Remember how I told you we had the same DNA?"

"Yes."

"That's what you felt. You felt the pull of our genetics, and you mistook it for me. It might have felt like me to you, but I assure you, it was not me."

"Oh, I see."

"Yes, now don't worry about it." He put his hand behind her head and pulled her toward him. "Now, come here, I have to show you how much I appreciate what you've done tonight."


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning Sephora was awake after a few hours. The light was just starting to come in the windows. She wondered if maybe soon, she wouldn't need to sleep either. She looked over at Sephiroth.

"Good morning, Sephora."

"Good morning, Sephiroth."

"I see you aren't sleeping as much. Soon, you won't need to sleep anymore."

"It's a little scary. The changes…."

"You'll get used to it. You'll even come to love it."

"I love anything that comes from you."

"Good, you won't be scared in the days ahead."

He smiled and moved in to kiss her, when suddenly, Krissa called her from downstairs.

"SEPHORA!!! Someone's here to see you!"

She held her hand to her head, "Hmm…must be Reno. If it's anyone else…I will have to have a long talk with my cousin."

"Don't forget the plan." Sephiroth told her as she stood to leave.

"I won't…after all…it was my plan." She smiled and closed the door after her. As she got to the front door, she saw it was indeed Reno. She broke out a huge, pretty smile for him.

"RENO!" she gave him a hug, "What's up?"

"Hmmm," he broke away from her, "I see you're ok after last nights little ordeal."

"Yeah, it's ok. It's just Cloud, and I knew he didn't like me in the first place."

"Yeah, but even Cloud isn't normally….I mean….look, do you even know who Sephiroth is?"

"Not a clue."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Where are you from that you don't know Sephiroth?"

"I was a sheltered child." She smiled at him again, trying to win him over.

"Damn, I guess. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Sephiroth is dead and gone."

"Is he?"

"Definitely."

"Well then…wait actually. Why don't you come in for a few minutes, we'll talk about this." She let Reno in, with supposedly dead Sephiroth upstairs. She thought the tension was kind of fun. She sat Reno on the couch, and sat down next to him. "So, he's accusing me of knowing the location of a dead guy?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Does he do that a lot?"

"He's kind of obsessed about Sephiroth. I think Sephiroth symbolizes everything that's evil, everything Cloud can't control or stop. So he has to find him, weed him out and destroy him."

"That's not healthy."

"You're right….and now he's seeing him in you. And he won't let it go. He won't let up about it."

"Do you think maybe..."

"He's snapped? I'm starting to wonder. I mean, I don't see anything evil in you." He gave her a flirty little smile and put a hand on her leg.

"Good…"

And as Sephora and Reno had a little talk on the couch, Krissa let her curiosity get the best of her, and she went upstairs.

She looked at the door to Sephora's door and realized it was probably looked, so she started toward the other one. She gave the doorknob a turn…locked…and these doors didn't have keys. She knocked.

"Hello."

Nothing from in the room, she could hear movement, but no one answered her; no one came to the door.

"I think its time to have a talk with Sephora after her little Turk friend leaves." She started back downstairs.

She got downstairs in time to see Sephora escorting Reno out.

"Sephora," she said as her cousin closed the door, "I think we need to talk."

"About?"

"About whom you're hiding up there. About why the Reno of the Turks was here..."

"Something happened at work last night. Reno happened to be there, he wanted to make sure I was alright."

"What happened?"

"Nothing worth mentioning. Reno just thought I might need to be 'consoled'. It's just Reno being Reno."

"I see…ok…that answers that. I just went upstairs…"

"What?!" Sephora was getting angry now. She'd specifically asked that they be left alone, and Krissa couldn't even manage that.

"I went upstairs. I didn't even both with your room, but I did try to get in the guest room. I'm not going to lie to you."

"Krissa, how could you?! You PROMISED me you'd leave them alone and you can't do that??"

"Sephora, you're worrying me. I had to see if I could find out a little of what's up. I could hear movement in the room, but no one answered when I knocked."

"They won't. They've been told not to, and they're just kids, so leave them alone. Leave them out of things…."

"Sephora…who ARE they?"

"Krissa…maybe we should leave…I can't have you snooping around…"

"Listen to yourself! You'd rather leave here with them than let me in! You never would have done that before whoever these people are got here. You're scaring me!"

"Krissa…"

"When was the last time you ate anything, Sephora?"

Sephora had to think about that…she hadn't eaten since her night with Sephiroth…her amazing night with him. Maybe she didn't have to, now.

"That's what I thought!" Krissa answered her own question. "Sephora, I just want you to see that he's not worth it, whoever he is."

"Yes, he is. That's what you don't get. He's everything. I was never whole without him, and I'll never be whole again, if he's not here. I don't want to leave, but if I have to, I will. Understand?"

"Honestly, no, I don't. But, if that's how it has to be, that's how it is. I won't bother you again. I'd rather have you here where I can watch you than off somewhere with some guy I don't know."

"Thank you." She started up the stairs, and gave a little knock on her bedroom door. "Just me." The door opened, and Sephiroths face with its green eyes full of fire appeared in front of her. He opened the door all the way and let her in.

"If you had been that girl, I would have killed you," he said after locking the door behind her. "You need to make sure…"

"I just did. She asked me about you."

"And you said?"

"Nothing. There's nothing about you she needs to know. I did tell her if she keeps snooping around, I'll take you guys and take off."

"Good girl. And Reno?"

"Plan executed. He thinks Clouds lost it. He'll be keeping a closer eye on Cloud than on me."

"Good. Let him keep an eye on Cloud, and we'll bide our time. We'll be ready soon."

"For what?"

"Our time to rule. Our time to take this planet and use it as it was intended to be used. We WILL take it this time."

"I'm ready…I'm ready now."

"I know, and that's good, I have no reason to worry. We do have to wait. But when we're ready…what they've seen before will be nothing."

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Reno popped into Seventh Heaven, calling to Tifa. He had to talk to her.

"Tifa! Are you around?"

"In the back, Reno!"

He made his way to the back and leaned against the door frame, watching as Tifa put various supplies away.

"What's up Reno?"

"I just had a visit with Sephora."

"And?"

"She seems fine to me, I mean, she's not hurt or anything. I do think, however, that we do have a problem."

Tifa turned to look at him. "What kind of problem?"

"If you listen to her, a ridiculously spiky blonde problem."

"Do you believe her?"

"I'm not sure yet. Let me tell you what she was telling me…"

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Note -

Hmmm, maybe Reno's starting to suspect something, too?


	12. Chapter 12

Sephora was stretched out next to Sephiroth, taking in the moment of peace and quiet they had. She knew it wouldn't last long. She tended to enjoy a rare moment where either he wasn't talking or they weren't being invaded by little silver haired interlopers.

"I'm thinking of letting Kadaj out…"

Sephora sighed, there it went. "Why?"

"To throw them off track."

"You want to use poor little Kadaj to throw them off track?"

"He's not as helpless as he looks, you know. That's only what he's letting you see. He can take care of himself."

"In any event, it's not necessary."

He raised an eyebrow at her, apparently she had decided she knew what was and wasn't necessary now. He decided to humor her. "And would you like to tell me why that is?"

"Because we have this all figured out already. Remember?"

"And you wouldn't like to have a backup plan?"

"I don't want to put him in harms way like that. I'd rather just stick this out. That way, we have Cloud completely out of the way, and when we do show them what we have to show them, they won't be ready. They won't have him to draw strength from. His little friends need him, just as much as he needs them. Without each other, I don't know exactly how much of a threat they are."

"Hmmm…I see. You've thought this through."

"Of course I have. I don't just do things blindly. If there's no thought behind it, anything can happen."

"I agree. Well…good girl."

She smiled and gave him a kiss. "Thank you." She curled into him some more.

"Get some sleep. I know you still need some. Enjoy it while you can."

"Oh, I will." With that she closed her eyes and started to drift off, anticipating waking in a few hours.

As she dozed, Sephiroth was thinking. She was coming along as he'd hoped, maybe even a little faster. Her thought process was exactly as it should be. Plotting, calculating, manipulative, and perfect. He waited for her to wake up from her nap and thought about where to take it all next.

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When she woke up a few hours later, he wasn't next to her. She panicked for a split second, then realized he was probably in with the other three. Hopefully he was, anyway. She started toward they're room; the house was quiet for a change. She doubted her cousin would be awake, not at this early morning hour. She went to the kids door and pressed her ear to the door. The only thing she really heard was Sephiroth, talking low. She couldn't make out words, but just hearing him made her tingle. He made her whole. She decided to walk in.

"Hey guys." She closed and locked the door behind her. "What's up?"

"We're just discussing…" Sephiroth said casually.

"PLOTTING!" the other three spoke up. They were so excited; she couldn't help but smile at them. She sat next to Sephiroth.

"Plotting? Do I get in on it too?"

"Of course you will. You've been doing your part, going to work. We're going to step it up a little bit, with Kadaj here. Get close, be quiet, we'll fill you in."

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Tifa looked out the window and thought over what Reno had just told her. He was right; you had to consider both sides. On the one hand, Cloud wasn't one to just kind of randomly accuse people of crazy things. He also wasn't really prone to bouts of psychosis, either. On the other, there was no real reason to think Sephora had any connection to Sephiroth, either. She wasn't sure what to think. She and Reno just decided they needed to keep a good eye on the girl, and see exactly what, if anything, she was up to. At the same time, she resolved to try to keep Cloud on a shorter leash. Give him less room to hang himself if something really isn't right.

One thing was sure, if Sephora WAS up to something, they would know what it was soon.

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Note - its a mini update... :-)

She's starting to show a little independant streak, good for her, lol.


	13. Chapter 13

Sephora sat in the car, not quite ready to go in yet. This part of Sephiroths plan seemed easy enough, but would it actually be?

"Kadaj?"

"Yeah?"

"This is going to be fairly simple, right?"

"Sure thing. Should be no problem for you." He smiled at her, trying to be a little reassuring.

"And then we take him back?"

"Yes."

"And then….?"

"And then, once brothers done with him, we get to have fun," piped up a voice from the back seat.

Sephora turned around, she'd almost forgotten about them. "Are you two going to be on your best behavior while I'm in there?"

"Yes, we'll be good." Yazoo said quietly."

"Good. You'll be there if I need you, right?"

"Yes." He said again.

"Good." She turned back to Kadaj. "Keep a good eye on them, and make sure you pay attention to what's going on."

"Don't worry."

"I'm not." With that, she got out of her car and went to face her destiny. She had no idea Sephiroth was carrying out another part of his plan at home.

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Sephiroth was just planning on getting rid of distractions. He needed Sephora one hundred percent focused at this point, and this was the only way to get it. For the first time since he had arrived, Sephiroth started down the stairs.

Krissa was in the living room, and could hear the heavy footsteps on the stairs. Sephoras unseen guest was headed her way, and if he was as dangerous as she thought he might be, it would be in her best interest to hide.

Sephiroth strode into the kitchen first, he knew she tended to be here the most, but he saw nothing.

"Look, there's no use in hiding. We both know I'm going to find you." He looked behind a curtain. "It's going to be easier on you if you come out now. If I have to HUNT you down, I'm not going to be very happy with you." He checked the last place he could think of, the bathroom. "Come out, come out wherever you are. I know you're in here, because I know you're in the house. This is your last chance to come out." He heard a sigh.

"Fine." He recognized it was the voice of someone trying to be brave, and not quite making it. Krissa crawled out from the cabinet she'd been hiding in. She looked up at him, and her eyes widened. "You?"

"I see my reputation precedes me. That's good."

"Why are you here? What you doing to my cousin?"

"I'm opening her up to who she is."

"She's nothing to you…you need to leave…"

"That's where you're wrong. I need to stay. I'm going to have the beautiful I always dreamed of for me and my race. My brothers, and Sephora."

"She's not like you."

"And she is like you? What is it with you and your entire feeble minded race? You don't like to see what's in front of you?"

"She's my family."

"Oh, but that's just it…she's not. She never has been."

"What are you talking about?"

"Let me ask you, do you have clear memories?"

"Of what?"

"Life with her, childhood maybe, family vacations, anything like that?"

"Of course I do!"

"Tell me about one. Tell me in detail something that happened when you were younger, that she was there for."

"No."

"Why? Because there is none?"

"No, because I won't let you use my memories like that."

"Don't lie to yourself. You're being rather naïve right now. You don't have actual memories. You have thoughts that you had a cousin named Sephora, and you had experiences with her. You have a vague idea these things happened, but you can't see them with clarity."

"That's not…"she started quietly.

"Yes, it is true. I know it is. You were just part of an experiment and she was just a creation in a lab. Sephora was an experiment to see if one of us could function in the outside world until we were needed, an experiment to see if the true self can sleep. Well…it can." He took another step toward her. "I've simply awoken what was already inside her, her very being. I've just showed her who she is. Now, I'm going to take that, and use it to further my ends."

"I'm not going to let her do anything with you."

"Oh, stop. You feel this loyalty toward these familial lines, these lies drawn on your memory. It's unfortunate for you, but so does she. You've become a distraction. I'm going to have to eliminate that."

The light went on in Krissas head; he was going to kill her. She started to turn, and he grabbed her hair and slammed her back to the floor. She felt her head bounce off the hard wood. She looked up at him, her eyes showing her double.

"Oh, no, that won't be happening."

The last thing she saw was Sephiroth, drawing his blade, then, everything was black.


	14. Chapter 14

Sephora slipped into the alley next to bar, keeping to the shadows. She made her way to the back door and slipped in. She had a feeling that maybe things weren't going to go the way they were planned. She needed to make sure that Tifa and Reno didn't see her. She blended into the crowd of drunkards, and tried to identify where everyone was. Tifa was behind the bar, and Reno was at the bar in front of her, and to his left, was the bald guy, Rude, his partner. She took Reno in for a moment. He really was spectacular. It was unfortunate that Sephiroth decided he had to be eliminated eventually, as well.

She looked to her right; next to the door was someone she had never seen before. There was no way this guy ever moved through a crowd unnoticed. Maybe it was the red cape, the long dark hair, or the metal shoes, but something told her this one was different. He might be trouble if she let him get to close. About three feet to his left was that girl, Yuffie.

She suddenly noticed that the other guy she met the night she met Reno was there. The blonde guy with the accent, Cid, she thought was his name. He was headed to the back; she suddenly thanked whoever was responsible for her good luck.

Something was up, why were they all here? Why were they guarding the doors? Reno had to be watching the entrance to the upstairs. That had to be where Cloud was. She was never going to get up there with him keeping an eye on it, and with Rude right there, no less. She couldn't leave to go get Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, either. She needed a diversion, and she needed it before the people actually patronizing the bar started to trickle out and she lost her cover. Directly next her were two men from the city, both clearly drunk, and both still drinking. One had his back to the other. She got down low and drove a shoulder into the man next to her. He stumbled and knocked into the guy in front of him, spilling his drink all over the other mans back. The front man whirled around, glared at the other, and started berating him for running to him. Sephora stayed down low as they started exchanging pushes, she moved forward a little, stuck out a foot, and tripped the first guy as he threw a punch. He tripped, and ended up punching someone else. Before she knew it, a chain reaction had started, and about ten drunken men were starting a brawl. Perfect. She saw that Tifa, Reno, and Rude were momentarily distracted, and made her move for the door to the upstairs.

Staying low, she moved up the stairs, stopped just before the landing, and listened for a moment. She was just listening to voices, footsteps, anything that indicated that Cloud wasn't alone. She didn't sense any kind of a problem, so she stood up, and went to find him.

The first room she poked her head into was empty, she saw a desk and decided to take a look around, see what she could find out. She rifled through a few papers that told her nothing she didn't already know. It was all basic info, his name is Cloud Strife, he has a delivery service. She picked up a framed picture. Tifa, Cloud, and the kids, it was probably a couple of years old, the kids looked a little younger. She put it down and picked up another one. Cloud, Tifa, and the kids again…and Cloud was smiling. Clearly, a few months ago, this was a happy little family.

"Hmm, you were so happy a while ago. What happened?"

"You," a voice came from behind her, "You happened. And I knew it was coming."

She dropped the picture on the table and whirled around.

"Cloud…"

"Where is Sephiroth?"

She looked away from him, "Please. Why do you think I would tell you where he is?"

"He wants to see me."

"No, he doesn't." She stepped back, "He just wants me to take care of you." She threw a punch, before it could land, a hand caught her wrist.

"Oh, no no…I don't think we'll be doing that."

She turned to look at the new voice, her eyes widened and she gasped. "Reno?!"

----------------------------------------------------

Sephiroth paced the house, impatient.

"What could be taking them so long? There are four of them this time…"

In the time they'd been gone; he'd both terminated the distraction and eliminated the evidence. If Sephora was spiraling as far out of touch with her "real life" as he thought she might be, she'd never even notice. If she did notice, he'd cover. He would probably be able to tell her truth. She thought he was a god; he could get away with whatever he wanted.

All he could do right now, though, was waiting, and hope she would do as told.

--------------------------------------------

Reno snapped out his electro-mag rod, and Sephora ducked. She quickly pulled a dagger out of her boot, where she'd been hiding it, waiting for the perfect time to use it. Reno still had a hold on her wrist, she tried to wheel behind him, but he kept up with her. She dropped down and pulled Reno down with her. She heard footsteps on the stairs. They must've heard the noise, and they were coming. She looked around quickly, Cloud was gone. Sephiroth was not going to be happy.

She wrenched her arm away from Reno and stood up, holding the knife in front of her, backing away. He looked at her with a combination of confusion and anger.

"Look, I REALLY don't want to hurt you, Sephora."

She smiled, "Then don't." She disappeared out the window as the others came through the door. Reno took off after her down the fire escape as Rude, Tifa, and the others ran back downstairs.

As Sephora ran down the fire escape, Reno decided to bypass the stairs completely and just jump. He landed, on his feet, in front of her. Between the building, and her way back to the car and the safety of her "brothers", she was trapped.

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Again, sorry about the wait. Hope it was worthwhile though!


	15. Chapter 15

She looked at Reno, pleadingly.

"Reno, come on, please. Let me go. I'll leave the city, I swear." She looked behind him; Kadaj was sneaking up behind him with a gun looking weapon in hand. She noticed Reno looking behind her, Rude was creeping up on her, she knew it. She had to think fast.

She ducked. Just when Rude was going to tackle her, she ducked, and he hit Reno. Sephora ran over to Kadaj. They looked over at the others, who were just staring open mouthed. After a moment, they started toward them. Sephora held out a hand.

"Don't." She turned to Kadaj, "Go to Reno." He did as told. "Point the gun at his head." He did. Sephora looked back to the group. "One more step and Kadaj shoots. I don't want to, but I will if I have to."

"I knew you knew where he was…"Cloud started.

"Cloud, you know nothing. All you know, right now, is that I knew where Kadaj was, and that I'm willing to kill Reno to get away. Who else, I wonder, do I find expendable?" She smiled. She was taunting him, like a cat with a mouse.

Reno looked up at her; he couldn't believe this cruel little monster was the same girl he'd been harmlessly flirting with two days prior. He wanted to help her, if he could. And if he couldn't, he could at least get her away from anyone she could hurt. He looked over to Rude, and the two of them got the same idea. With a sweep of the legs, both Kadaj and Sephora toppled over. Reno grabbed Sephora by the hair, pulled her up, and got behind her, in a position where he could either choke her, or break her neck. Kadaj got up and aimed his gun at Reno's head again.

"Oh, now don't do that. You might hit her." He jerked her up to shield his head. "Or…I might twitch after you fire, and break her little neck. You don't want that, do you?"

Kadaj lowered his gun; Sephiroth was not going to be happy. He had lost her, he thought. He lost his sister to Reno of the Turks, and he had no idea how he was going to get her back.

"Don't worry Sephora, we'll come for you."

"Kadaj…no…don't…"

"No, it's ok. We'll come for you. HE won't let you go." Kadaj lowered his gun and ran off.

The others watched after him.

"Well," the guy in the red cape said, "that was…interesting, if nothing else."

Reno prodded Sephora in the back with the electro-mag rod. "Come on, let's go. You have some explaining to do." He led her back in to the now empty bar, his arm still around her neck. "Do we have anything we can tie her up with? I don't trust her even a little at this point." He and Rude pushed her down on a chair, Yuffie handed them a length of rope, and they tied up her. Sephora heaved a sigh. After that, they all sat in silence for a few minutes, taking it all in. Reno pulled a chair over next to her and straddled it backwards.

"The way I look at it, there's only one thing we can do…"

"Kill her," Cloud interrupted. "We have to kill her. She's dangerous, she's under their control. We have to be rid of her."

"NO," Reno and Rude both yelled.

"We have to take her to the president," said Rude

"Maybe he'll know something about her. Why she is who she is," Reno explained. "That's the only thing that makes sense."

She looked up at him with big, innocent eyes. "Reno, you don't want to do that, do you? Let me go, please? I'll be good."

"Um…hey…no." He took hold of her arm and pulled her up. "We're going now." He turned and looked at the rest of them. "Don't try to stop us. This is really the only way. You want her gone, she's going, and that's all that matters, really." He pulled her out the door, Rude followed, keeping an eye on the rest of them.

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Back at the house, Sephiroth was getting highly impatient. Something had to have gone wrong, or they'd be back by now, and with Cloud. It's possible that they just killed her, or killed all four of them. As he was deep in thought about what to do, now that he had no one to do the dirty work, the three Remnants burst in.

"BROTHER! They've got her! Reno and that other Turk….they're going to kill her!" Kadaj was clearly in a panic.

Sephiroth grabbed hold of both of Kadajs shoulders and shoved him down on a chair. He pointed at him and glared a death stare. "Calm down, Kadaj." He looked to Loz and Yazoo, both of whom were decidedly more composed. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I wasn't even there," Yazoo said in his usual, eerily calm voice. "Kadaj wouldn't let us out of the car to help."

Sephiroth looked back to Kadaj. "Tell me what happened, calmly."

Kadaj looked up at Sephiroth, he was still scared. He was clearly worried for his "sister". "Well, I don't know exactly what happened before I got there. But, she must've gotten into some kind of trouble. Reno, that Turk, was standing between her and the way to the car, and she had the building behind her. The rest of them, Cloud and his friends, were there, too. I tried to help her. I snuck up behind Reno, held one of the guns to his head, but he still managed to get her. I don't know what they're going to do to her. I'm afraid for her, brother. We have to get her back."

"We'll get her back, Kadaj. You did well, just for trying…"

"Why can't we just move on without her?" Yazoo asked, coldly.

"Because, we aren't. We need her, Yazoo. We can't fully carry out our plans without her." Sephiroth stood thinking for a moment, while the Remnants all sat around and watched him. After a few moments, Kadaj noticed something and had to question it.

"Where's that other girl?"

"The distraction has been disposed of. Don't worry about that." He thought again for a minute. "They're going to take her to see Shin-Ra."

"Why would they do that?"

"Those Turks don't do anything without checking with their precious President first. Even if they want to kill her, they won't until Rufus Shinra gives the go ahead. They probably also want answers, to know who and what she really is. Shinra will know."

"So she's with them?"

"At the new Shin-Ra building…"

Kadaj jumped up. "Then let's go get her!"

Sephiroth put a hand up. "No, Kadaj, not tonight. We're going to give it a day, maybe two. They aren't going to hurt her or do anything to her right away. We'll wait it out, and let them think we forgot about her, or that we don't need her. Then, when they aren't expecting it anymore, we'll get her back. Until then, hopefully, she'll make things a little hard for them."

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Reno pushed Sephora into the new Shin-Ra building. She was walking a little bit ahead of them down a hallway. Now and then, the hall would intersect another one, resulting in other corridors to go down. She got an idea. At one such intersection, she swooned and hit the floor. She heard Reno and Rude running towards her.

"What did you do to her?!" That was Rude.

"Me?! NOTHING! You saw it; she was walking ahead of us! I didn't even touch her!"

She was dangerously close to smiling. The two of them just kept going on about it, if they didn't stop soon, she'd laugh. Finally, Reno came over to check her pulse. She waited, she needed him to be close enough…she needed to feel his breath. Just as he was leaning into make sure she was breathing, she brought her bound hands up and whacked him as hard as she could under his chin. At the same time, she pulled her legs back, and kicked Rude as hard as she could in the stomach.

Reno groaned, "Ow…you little bitch!"

Sephora got to her feet quickly and took off down a corridor to her right. That'd teach them to tie her hands in the front. She smiled at the thought. Her smile faded as she looked behind her and saw Reno was close. She stepped up a little bit, quickly turned a corner, and ran into an empty looking room before Reno could catch up to her. She looked around; she was in some kind of office. She scrambled under the desk to hide and started working on the ropes binding her wrists together. If she could just slip the ropes off, she might be able to do something. Then, the door opened…

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Cloud, Tifa, and everyone else were still at Seventh Heaven, pondering how they could let her go.

"Do you really think Sephiroth or the others are going to go get her," asked Yuffie.

"I don't doubt it. If Sephiroth needs her, or even thinks he needs her, he'll go," said Cloud. "He might just play mind games, though, as well. Or use her as a bargaining chip."

"I just want to know what she really is. Is she another Remnant? Is she an experiment, like Sephiroth was?" Tifa wondered.

"I would think so. I've never heard anything about her, but I'm sure there's a lot about what happened in Shin-Ra's science department that I never knew about," Vincent said. "She could be another Remnant, she could be an experiment, or she could just be someone Sephiroth manipulated into being a puppet."

"How do we find out?" Cloud asked him.

"Well, either we can wait for the Turks to come and tell us, or we can go ask Rufus Shinra ourselves."

"I think a little visit to Shin-Ra is in order. We should go tomorrow," Cloud decided.

Vincent, Tifa, Cid, and Yuffie agreed with him. Cloud was also deciding, secretly, to kill her if he had the first chance. She couldn't be trusted, no matter what she did.

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"Come on, Sephora, you're being ridiculous," Reno said as he surveyed the room. He took a step. "There's not many places to hide. I'm going to find you."

She sighed. He was right; she'd picked the worst possible room to escape to. She came out from under the desk and looked up at him.

"Um…sorry?"

"Yeah, I bet." He bent down a little bit and hoisted her over his shoulder, so her head was behind him.

"HEY! What in the world are you doing?? I can walk!!"

"Yeah, but you aren't going to. I'm sorry, but after that little stunt, there's no way I'm letting you have a chance like that again. Just be a good girl for me, and this is all going to go easier for you." He carried her down another series of corridors. They all looked the same. He finally turned into a room and stopped.

"Anywhere I can set this down?"

"Right in that chair," said another, new voice.

Sephora was set down in a chair; she looked to her left and looked right into the eyes of a well-groomed blonde. He raised an eyebrow.

"Well…what do we have here," he said, half amused.

"This is her. This is the one I told you about. We're pretty sure she has something to do with Sephiroth," said Reno. "Even if she's not involved with him, Kadaj did show up today. He was trying to help her."

"Was he?" He never took his eyes off her, the entire time. Even when Reno was talking. She assumed he was trying to psyche her out. "Do you know who I am?"

"I'd naturally assume you're Rufus Shinra, the president of this so-called company."

"That's not very nice. We're very much a company these days."

"Whatever you say, Mr. President."

"Well, if you know who I am, who are you?"

"I'm Sephora. Sephora Rotheschild. And I'm also going to assume that you already knew my name."

"You assume correctly."

"What else do you need to know?"

"Who are you? Where are you from?"

"Well, I told you who I am. As for where I'm from, that doesn't matter. I'm not from this city, I'll tell you that."

"Do you mind if we run a few tests?"

"Would it matter if I did?'

"Honestly, no, not really."

"I didn't think so. But thank you for being honest with me. Do what you think you need. My brothers will come for me, and they will bring your end."

"Your brothers?"

"I think I've said enough to you for now, Mr. Shinra."

"Fine with me. Reno, Rude, take her to the lab. We'll find somewhere for her."

"Yes, sir," they both said. Reno took her arm and guided her up.

"Come on."

They walked down a bunch of identical, anonymous looking hallways, and down a few flights of stairs. Sephora realized that if she did escape of her own power, she'd be lost. Everything looked too similar. The eventually got to one corridor that had doors on both sides, all the doors had little windows covered by sliding metal panels. She was about to caged.

Rude was checking the rooms to see who was in where, and to see if they had room for her. Reno turned to her.

"You didn't have to be so rude to the president. He might have gone a little easier on you."

"Right. I'm sure about that."

"I might have been more inclined to help you. Plead your case, if you will. Then at least you'd have a decent place to stay."

"It really doesn't matter, Reno."

"It does to me."

Rude called to him, "Reno! We've got an empty one right here."

He walked her down and guided her into the empty room. It was windowless, with padded walls. There was a cot suspended from the wall, and a toilet, and that was all. Sephora sighed.

"Hey, this is your own fault," Reno told her as he untied her wrists. "If you behave with whatever the scientists need to do, maybe I'll see what I can do about getting you somewhere a little nicer. At least a warmer blanket or something."

"Don't knock yourself out," she said, rubbing her wrists.

"You don't have to be like that, you know. They're just making you like this….Whatever, though. Be good, have a good night." Reno walked out and locked her in.

Sephora just stood in the middle of the room, not sure what to do. The light was on right now, she assumed that eventually it would go off. Anything could happen then. Even now, she could hear movement from the other rooms, vague whisperings. Were they crazy? Had they started that way? Anyway you looked at it; there was nothing she could do now. She sank down on her cot. It was going to be a long night.


	16. Chapter 16

Back in Rufus Shinras office, Reno and Rude were full of questions.

"So, do you know anything about her, sir?" Rude asked.

"Not much, no. I have an idea about it."

"What's that, sir?" asked Reno.

"I think she might have been a little toy of Hojos."

"Another experiment?"

"Yes, I'm not entirely sure about that, though. The tests will tell us about her biology, and I'll see if there are any notes to dig up on her."

"So that's that then?"

"For now, yes."

Reno and Rude just looked at each other and shrugged. They knew when they had questioned enough. Right now there was nothing left to know. They walked out into the hallway.

"What are the odds that they're going to storm the building trying to find out about her?" asked Reno.

"Probably pretty good. We should just go tell them."

"We can do it tomorrow morning. It's been a long day." He walked away.

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Early the next morning, Sephora heard the lock on her door click. She looked around, half panicking, trying to think of what she could do. She didn't come up with anything. She curled up on the cot and pretended to sleep.

Rufus walked in and stopped just short of where she was laying.

"Come on. Let's go."

She sat up and glared at him. "How did you know…?"

"I do know a little. I'm not quite that stupid."

"Could have fooled me."

"Whatever you say, my dear." He took her arm and pulled her up. She struggled with him a little, and when she did, he pulled back his suit coat, revealing a little gun. "Don't try anything silly, please."

Sephora sighed and resigned herself to her fate for now. She allowed him to lead her away for whatever "tests" they needed to perform on her.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, back in Edge, Reno and Rude had just arrived at Seventh Heaven. They just walked in to find the whole little group, sitting at a table, probably plotting a little "invasion" of the Shin-Ra building later.

"Hello," Reno said, a little deviously, smiling. "What are you people up to?"

"Nothing! And don't you ever knock?" Yuffie said, angrily.

"Don't you ever lock doors?"

"Reno, what do you want?" Tifa asked him, more than a little tired and exasperated sounding.

"We just wanted to let you know that the President saw Sephora last night," Rude replied.

"And?" asked Cloud.

"He doesn't know anything."

"Right, I believe that."

"He really doesn't!" Reno yelled. "He's going to put her through some tests, and see if he can pull up any files on her. He thinks she's one of Hojos experiments. He doesn't know for sure."

"We'll let you know when we find out though," said Rude.

"We're going to head back and see what's going on with her."

"Ok. Thanks for giving us a heads up," said Tifa.

"You're welcome. We're out of here."

Reno and Rude walked out. Cloud looked at Tifa.

"I think we need to hear this from the President himself, don't you?"

"Maybe we do." She sighed.

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Rufus lead Reno and Rude into the exam room where they were testing Sephora. The room was a wreck, and she was draped over an exam bed.

"What did you do to her?" Reno asked.

"We sedated her," said one of the scientists.

"Was that necessary?"

"Look around. She fought us…hard. I think she panicked a little. We haven't even gotten the tests done yet, it took so much to sedate her. We didn't think she'd ever knock out."

"Did she say anything?"

"Something about Sephiroth."

"Do you remember what it was?"

"No, she was ranting. It didn't really make a lot of sense."

Reno shook his head. "Great, that's just great." He looked over to Rufus. "You aren't going to get a lot of information from her like this."

"No, but she has to wake up sometime. At least this way we can get the necessary biological answers."

"Did you find anything in Hojos papers about her?"

"Not yet."

"I see."

"I'm going to go take another look. You two should stay here and wait for her to wake up. Try telling her a little about Sephiroth has put us all through, maybe. She doesn't seem to know."

"Not a problem sir. And sir, expect a visit from Cloud sometime today, I don't think he bought what we told him."

"Thanks for telling me." With that, the president left.

Reno looked back to the scientists. "Restrain her now. You don't know when she's going to wake up again. We'll help."

Reno and Rude held her in place while they strapped her to an exam table. Reno couldn't help but wonder if it would even hold her if she came around. He watched them take her blood and hoped that maybe they could all avoid chaos for awhile.

----------------------------------------

Rufus was at the computer, going over what was left of Hojos notes. The guy had preformed far more experiments than he had thought. He just needed to find the one about this girl. He clicked on a new file and started to read. That was when his door flew open, and there was Cloud. He didn't even bother to look up.

"I've been expecting you."

"Shinra! I need answ…you've been expecting me?" Cloud had to stop his sentence mid stream for that one.

"Yes. Reno and Rude had an idea you'd show up. Apparently you didn't believe them."

"No, not really."  
"What did they tell you?"

"Nothing, really. They said you didn't know anything."

"Well, I don't. I still don't. As you can see, I'm trying to find some concrete answers myself. I simply don't know what she's about right now. I'm pretty sure she's not a remnant though, if that says anything."

"No…"

"I'll let you know if I find anything out, Cloud. I'll probably need some assistance riding our planet of her. And with foiling whatever little plan she has brewing."

"Why don't I just stay here with you until you find some answers?"

"Because you do no one any good like that. You distract me. We're conducting tests on her right now, Cloud. After that, Reno is going to see what he can get out of her. She seems to like him, kind of."

"Fine, we'll do it your way, for now. I better have some answers in the next couple of days though, Shinra."

"You will, Cloud. I'd never leave you in the dark." He smiled at him.

"You better not, Shinra…" With that, Cloud turned and walked out. He thought about why he was leaving it at that. He knew he didn't trust Rufus. There was really nothing he could do until the tests were done at least. Then, even if he needed to break in, there would be some answers.

----------------------------------------------------

Reno sat next to Sephoras bed. She was back in her cell, still unconscious. He thought she would be awake by now, but they must've really shot her up. All the poking and prodding was done, now he was going to try to reason with her…if she ever woke up. He sighed. Cloud had probably shown up by now, and was probably his usual pain in ass. They still didn't know anything; they had to wait for the test results to come back. He heard a moan and looked back to Sephora, she was stirring. He decided to play at as sweet as he could, she needed to trust him. He plastered a big smile on his face.

Sephora opened her eyes, and, at seeing who was next to her, drew away.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

"Well, stop smiling like that."

He changed expressions, "Sorry."

"It didn't look real."

"It wasn't."

She tried to sit up, and found she didn't have the energy. "What did they do to me?"

"They drugged you up."

"Did they get a little upset because I ransacked the room? Poor babies."

"Yeah, well, they shot you up with so much, you're lucky you're not in a coma right now."

"Oh, yes, lucky me. Locked in a cage…"

"You could be dead."

"I don't know about that…if it took them that much to knock me out, I'd imagine it'd take a lot more to kill me," she smiled, "don't you think?"

"I'm not sure what to think right now, really."

"It doesn't matter what you think. Soon, you'll know."

"Still clinging to that hope that he'll come and get you?"

"Who?"

"Oh, come on, stop playing games. We all know you're hiding him somewhere. Why not just be honest about it."

"I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Come off it, Sephora. You even mentioned him during your half-drugged, panicked ranting."

"I don't believe you."

"You did. You told us probably more than you should."

"Then why are you asking me about it? If you knew anything, you'd be using that knowledge right now. You'd be going after him."

"So you admit you know him?"

"I know the name. If I was all drugged up, panicked, and rambling, I might have just been doing a stream of consciousness thing."

"You could have been. But you weren't. I wish you would just admit it. At least that you now him."

"Know who?" She smiled up at him again. He couldn't help but get the feeling she was completely losing her mind.

"Stop it. I know you have some kind of plan. Even if you don't have Sephiroth here yet, you're planning on bringing him here. You're planning on helping Kadaj bring him here. You don't know what he's capable of, Sephora. He's evil, and that's all he is. Nothing good can come of your associating with him."

"I told you Reno…I don't know what you're…"

His ringing phone cut her off. He flipped it open.

"Hello?"

"Reno, are you still in the room with her?"

"Yes, sir, she's awake now and I'm…"

Rufus interrupted him, "Make sure she's locked up and get upstairs, I found something." He sounded urgent.

"Yes sir, right away." He put his phone away and looked at her. "I'll be back to try and talk some sense into you later." He felt her eyes on him as he walked out, and couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking.

Rude was waiting outside the door.

"Did she tell you anything?"

"No, she didn't. We have to get upstairs, the President just called. He found something. It's about her." He gestured to the door.

"How did he sound?"

"Not well…We should hurry."

They headed up to see Rufus, more than a little anxious to see what he had found about their new "guest".

----------------------------------------------------

Note:

Here's an update, not a great one though.

I've also had a bit of writers block. I don't know if it shows, I think it does. I'm kind of trying to include everyone, to get everything rolling in the direction I want it to go in.

Hope it's ok though, and everyone enjoys it for what it is!


	17. Chapter 17

"What is it, sir?" Rude asked as they entered the room.

"Come here, both of you."

They walked over to where Rufus sat, behind a computer. He clicked on file SJ-17120. A few screens popped up, as well as a picture of a young girl. It was obviously Sephora.

"Oh, god…she is one of Hojos experiments…"Reno said.

"Yes, she is. She was created here in the lab, and kept in a cell. They injected her with Jenova cells to see what it would do to a female. She was created after Sephiroth disappeared in Neibelheim."

"How did she get out?"

"We let her out, apparently. As part of an experiment to see if one of them could get along in the real world. They gave her a family, gave them all false memories of raising her, and sent her off. They lost track of her, eventually, but figured they'd find her someday, when she came into her particular powers."

"She doesn't have any."

"Oh, she will. She won't be as strong as Sephiroth, by any means, and maybe not even as strong as the Remnants. She does have powers though, there's no doubt about that."

"So, it's just a matter of when she chooses to use them."

"Or when they decide to show themselves. And if she has Sephiroth hidden away somewhere…"

"Then he could teach her how to use them, he could bring them out."

"Exactly."

Reno and Rude looked at each for a minute, and then Reno turned his head and shook it, sadly.

"What do we do with her?" he asked.

"There's not really much we can do with her. I doubt she knows any of this, and Sephiroth, if he's out there, WILL come for her."

"We can't let him have her. He's going to use her as a weapon, like he does with Kadaj and this gang."

"Of course we can't. We'll just keep her here, locked up. When they come for her, we'll defeat them. We always do."

"I can't help but think it's not fair to her. She doesn't know, and she certainly didn't ask for this…"

"No, but, Reno, she's out of her mind. He has influence over her, and until he's gone, at least, she can't be trusted. Not matter how much you may want to."

"Do we tell her?"

"You can. Are you hoping it snaps some sense into her?"

"A little."

"Well, go right ahead, I just warn you, she's probably not going to take the news very well."

"Oh, I know she probably won't. What about Cloud and his little troupe?"

"Don't worry about them, I'll handle it."

"Ok…"he raised an eyebrow at him. The president was going to personally deliver the news? He must have thought Cloud was going to try something. "Let's go," he said to Rude.

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Sephora sat in her cell, waiting for Reno to come back. If they had any information about her, they'd tell her. They wanted to use to sway her to their side. They'd send Reno to do it. She thought he might be easy enough to distract. She had plans in store of that. She smiled and waited for him to come and tell her his news.

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Rufus was about to walk out the door of his office, when Cloud and his entire happy little group stormed in. He sighed at their apparent lack of patience.

"Shinra, we can't wait. Either you have some answers, or I'll help you find them, but we have to know."

Rufus sighed. "I have answers, Cloud. I was just coming to tell you."

"And?"

"She's one of ours. She was one of Hojos little experiments. He wanted to see what Jenova cells would do to a female. So he made a little girl, injected Jenova cells in her, and sent her into the world. They gave her a family with false memories of raising her."

"So she's…."

"Yes, she is. We don't know what kind of powers she has yet. She hasn't shown anything in that area so far as we know."

"And we shouldn't give her the chance to."

"What would like to do with her, Cloud?

"Kill her. Just get rid of her now, before Sephiroth has a chance to use her for his own purposes."

"No. There's no way we're doing that. We can keep her here, locked up, under guard. We can see what we can learn from her. Not only that, but having her here gives us something we can lure Sephiroth out with, if he's here. At the least, we can get the Remnants here."

"It's too much of a risk to let her live. If she gets out, you don't know what she's capable of, especially if she's under his control. I can't believe you would allow that. Especially considering the fact that Shin-Ra already has enough enemies as it is, why give them another reason?"

"It's not going to happen. We'll have the Turks watching her around the clock. Don't worry about it."

"We have to…"

"No, Cloud…"

As they continued to argue, they felt an explosion from somewhere outside. All yelling stopped, as they ran to see what it was. Cloud already had a pretty good idea.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sephora heard the key slide in and turn. Reno walked in, leaving the door open behind him. She could see Rude standing next to it, looking down the hall. This might be harder than she thought.

"Hi."

"Hello," she said coldly back to him.

"Don't be like that. I just thought you might like to know what we know about you. Would you?"

She sighed. "I suppose."

Reno put on the nicest tone of voice he could. "You were an experiment. Hojo made you, injected you with Jenova cells, and exposed you to mako. He wanted to see what it would do to a female. He gave you to a family, and gave them false memories of raising you, and being with you. You were kind of a social experiment. Eventually, they lost track of you."

"So then, I do share cells with them…"

"You do. And you have all kinds of power you haven't even tapped into yet...you shouldn't let Sephiroth and Kadaj use it. It's yours; you should decide what to do with it."

"You're right."

"What?" He gave her a shocked look.

"You're right, Reno." She got up and walked to him. "I shouldn't let them decide what I do." She ran a hand down the front of him. "I should stay here with you, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah…you should."

She kissed him. A long, drawn out kiss, during which, she opened her eyes, and kicked him, right where it counted.

She took off out the open door, trying to just outrun Rude. No such luck. He put out an arm and wrapped it around her waist, picking her up.

Sephora looked up at him. "Come on, Rude, put me down. You know I'm not going to hurt anyone. Let me go…we'll all be better off."

From the other room, Reno could be heard getting up.

"Please, he knows better than that. You're sharp, Rude!"

He came out to confront her, and they heard the explosion went off.

----------------------------------------------------

All conversation and movement had stopped in Rufus Shinras office. They all looked toward the door.

"What was that?" Tifa asked.

"I don't know, nothing we had planned," said Rufus. "It came from the east wall…outside. If it were inside, it would have been louder…"

Cloud was already taking off. "We need to go see what it was…NOW."

Everyone was running after before he had even finished speaking.

-------------------------------------------------------

Reno and Rude looked at each, then Sephora, then back at each other.

"Now what?" Rude said to Reno.

"They came for me!" Sephora yelled. "They finally came!"

Reno grabbed her wrist and pulled her after him.

"C'mon, we'll go see if they're really here. I've had enough of this."

Sephora trailed after him, being half dragged. She was so happy that they had finally made it to get her. She was smiling ear to ear.

"I told you, Reno! I told you they'd come! You didn't listen to me!"

"Shut up."

"I'm glad you're taking me to them. It makes it so much easier for them to dispose of you after they've gotten me…"

"SHUT UP! I don't really want to take the time to hit you right now, so shut the hell up."

She silenced herself and let him drag her along. She could feel he wasn't there. He had sent Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz along. She imagined that Cloud was somewhere too, with his entire group of happy idiots. They would all be destroyed too. She knew Kadaj could get the job done if he really needed to.

They went through a door and into the bright mid-afternoon sun. Sephora squinted to get a better view of what had happened. There was a big hole in the east wall of the Shin-Ra building. Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were standing in front of it; it looked like they had been ready to enter the building. Rufus was standing a few feet away from the three of them, joined by Cloud, Tifa, Cid, Yuffie, and Vincent. Sephora struggled in Renos grasp.

"Kadaj!!"

He finished whatever monologue he was giving to Rufus and the others and looked toward her.

"There she is! We've been looking for you, sister." He glared at Reno. "Let her go! We want her back!"

"I don't think so."

"She's not any use to you. She's my big sister. Let her go."

"I'm too smart for that, Kadaj."

"Fine." He turned toward Reno, Rude, and Sephora and held up his arm. Dog-like beasts sprung from ground and ran toward the three of them at full speed. Reno looked at them, looked at Sephora and looked back.

"Shit." He gave her a good hard push and ducked as the first monster jumped for his head. He pulled his electro-mag rod from behind his back and snapped it out to full length. He looked over to Sephora; she was still lying on the ground. She might have hit her head, but odds were greater she was just faking. It didn't matter; he had bigger problems right now. Kadaj was running at them, sword pointed towards them, at full speed. He ducked again and watched as Kadaj flew over him and right into Rudes waiting fist. He was on the ground for a moment, long enough for Reno to make his way over to him. As he was standing over him, Sephora came out of nowhere, wrapped her arms around his neck and took him down. His head cracked against the pavement. Stars floated in front of his eyes. Next thing he knew, Rude was landing on him. He looked back; Sephora was running away with Kadaj. So much for that. He pushed Rude up and they both took off after her.

Cloud and Tifa had Yazoo and Loz engaged in quite a little fight. As Sephora and Kadaj approached, Sephora lowered and did a little slide that knocked Tifa off her feet. Loz grabbed her hand, whipped her around a couple of times, and sent her flying into Yuffie. She stood up, and found herself staring into Vincent's three barreled gun.

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Note -

So, there's the update for now. Hope it's well liked. I tried to actually answer some questions. :-)


	18. Chapter 18

"Time to end this," he said, pulling the hammer back on the gun. As he was about to shoot, Yazoo came out of nowhere and tackled Sephora, firing a couple of shots in the process. Vincent's gun fired into the air. Yazoo's shots went no where near Vincent, but he did succeed in knocking Sephora out of the way. They were up and running before anyone took notice. The monsters had turned their attention this way. Reno and Rude had finally fought their way over to where she was, as well. Just as Reno was reaching out to make a grab for her, Kadaj got a hold of her wrist, and lead her to his waiting bike.

"Where are we going?" She asked, climbing on the back of his bike.

"To see him. He needs you." He got on the bike and started to speed off. "The time is coming," he said under his breath.

Yazoo and Loz took off after him, and the others just watched.

Cloud looked to Reno. "Where do you think they're going?"

"Hopefully, back to where she's been living, because otherwise, I really don't know where they'd go."

"Well, let's go there, then."

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They were in the Forgotten City again. Sephora was sitting next to the water, waiting for Sephiroth. Kadaj had gone to get him after they'd arrived here, and left her with Yazoo and Loz to protect her, should she need it. She didn't think she would. She found herself pretty capable of defense when the need arose. She would have freely admitted to anyone that being in this strange place scared her. She felt like she was being watched. She heard a noise and looked up. Kadaj and Sephiroth were walking through the trees, on their way to her. She couldn't wait; she'd been without him too long. She jumped to her feet and ran over to him.

"I'm back! I'm so sorry! I know I failed you…"

He put a hand on her arm, "It's ok, and you'll make it up to me later. Where are Yazoo and Loz?"

She pointed up, and they both looked skyward. There were Yazoo and Loz, perched in the trees, looking down at them.

"Hiding…good boys." He took her hand and started leading her to one of the houses. "Come on, let's talk. I heard you have some new information you might need cleared up."

She followed him, head down. "Yeah, you'd be right about that."

They walked into one of the strange shell houses. She was a little shocked to find it fully furnished. Must be when they all disappeared, it was sudden. Sephora sat at a table, and looked up at him.

"Are you mad at me?"

He sat across from her. "I already told you, no."

"Ok. Sorry." She put her head down.

"What did they tell you, Sephora?"

"They told me my family wasn't real. They told me I'm an experiment, that I was made in a lab, and I'm just like you."

"That's true."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Would you have believed me? I know you wouldn't have. Why would I just come out and tell you something so completely out there that you wouldn't believe me? I would have told you, when the time was right."

"So what happens to my family now? I can't go back to the way it was now, I know too much."

"I wouldn't worry about them," he said with an evil smile.

"What did you do?"

"Only what I had to do."

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Reno and Rude crashed through the door of Sephora's house. They were kind of itching for a fight by this point. Cloud and the others followed them with a little more caution. They were in an enclosed space, with a lot of cover. If they were there, they could have been hiding anywhere. Reno and Rude just did as they would usually do, running roughshod through the house, flipping over tables, waiting to take something, or someone, by surprise.

"THEY AREN'T HERE!" Reno yelled from upstairs.

"I didn't think they would be," said Cloud, "the bikes aren't outside. Not only that, but why would they be stupid enough to come back here."

Reno came walking back the down the stairs. "I try not to guess what they'd not be stupid enough to do."

"What?"

"I don't know…don't assume, I guess is what I'm saying."

They all stood around looking at each other for a few minutes. Clearly they were all trying to think of where to go now.

"Well," Reno said, "now what?"

"I guess we either find them, or wait for them to make a move. They could be anywhere right now."

"So waiting for them to make a move would be the way to go."

"Seems like it."

"I don't like that. They're too unpredictable. Whatever they're set to do, it's big. Whether Sephiroth is there or not.

"Sephiroth is there," Vincent piped up.

"How do you know?"

"They show it in the way they're acting. They don't just want to protect her. They want to protect him, and give her to him. She's his for whatever it is he needs her for, or thinks he needs her for."

"Then, I guess we should at least TRY to find them." Reno sighed, this was getting exhausting. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "I don't even know what to do anymore."

"We can go back and talk to the president, see if he has any ideas," said Rude.

"That's probably a good idea. We can do that…"

"And we'll go look for them," said Cloud.

"Sounds like the closest thing to a plan we've got," Reno replied.

They split up again, hoping to find the five of them before they really started anything.

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"I don't know about this, Sephiroth." Sephora hated to doubt him, but this hardly sounded like a good idea to her.

"Don't question me. It'll be fine. You're ready for anything, remember, your power is there when you need it to be. It always has been. Just use it. I wouldn't lead you astray or lie to you on this, it's too important."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now, like I said, do not question me. I'll meet you at the Northern Crater. Get the job done, or at the very least mostly done. I want to do as little as possible."

"Yes."

He gave her one of those deep, mesmerizing kisses. "Good girl."

She felt something inside her unhinge. She was ready, she could do anything. She looked at him.

"Don't let anything happen to you."

"I won't. Go, Kadaj will meet you three there."

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Sephora, Yazoo and Loz entered the ruins of Midgar. She looked around nervously, understanding why they'd think the five of them would be hiding out here. There were a lot of places for anything to conceal itself. Loz looked over to her.

"Well? Where are they?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

Loz crossed his arms. "He SAID you'd KNOW."

"You're supposed to know where brother is."

She sighed. "I can try to, I don't know, focus on him, or something." She closed her eyes and concentrated. She let everything around her melt away and focused on the darkness. Yazoo and Loz looked at each other.

"I think he's wrong…"said Loz.

"He's never been wrong before..."

"Would you two please shut up!" she yelled. She put her hand to her head and really tried to focus. She saw a little pin prick of light, and that was what she concentrated on, that light in the darkness. Clouds light…

She took off to the left. "FOLLOW ME! I know where he is…"

In another part of the ruins, Cloud and others were searching every crack, every crevice, anything that could be used to hide them. He heard footsteps and called to the others.

"Stop. They're coming."

Sephora stopped dead and held out in harms to her side, signaling the boys.

"Stop. They're right up here. I want you two to hide until I need you."

"Alright, but don't mess up," said Loz.

"I'm more worried about you. Now go, be good."

She waited for the two of them to hide before she turned the corner, and let them see her. They were all there, Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, Cid, Yuffie…the whole happy little gang. But they weren't family…not like she was.

"Cloud…" she smiled at him.

"Sephora, what are you doing? Where are you hiding them?"

"We have a plan, Cloud. We were meant for something more. This world should be ours to do with as we want. We can be rid of all the fools that would take it away from us. They want to wipe us out, eliminate us from the world."

"I'm not like you."

She started walking towards him. "Cloud, of course you are. You're special, too. You've been given gifts. You should use them." She was getting closer, a little too close for them. She saw Vincent draw his gun again. "Don't do that, Vincent. I don't want to hurt him." She got right up to Clouds ear and whispered. "We're family Cloud. You're my brother…we share the same legacy, everything should be ours. Don't let them tell you what to do anymore. We want you to come with us…"

"I'll never come with you; I won't be his puppet anymore, his or anyone else's."

"But, we're family, brother…you, me, Kadaj….and Denzel, too."

Cloud drew back from her suddenly and his hand went to the hilt of the Buster sword. "What do you know about Denzel?"

"Hmm…I don't know. What DO I know about him? And, further, how do I know it?" She smiled. "Do I have him, have I turned him against you, or…am I just playing games? Am I bluffing, Cloud?"

Cloud just stared her down, trying to get a signal from her, either way.

"Can you afford to take the chance that I'm not? Just come with me, and you'll see."

---------------------------------------------

There ya go...I've kind of had a touch of writers block, and I'm not entirely sure how feel about this chapter, but there it is! Enjoy!


	19. Chapter 19

She was doing something to him, they could see it. Whether she was using her own new powers, or just Sephiroths collective will, she was doing something. She started taking slow steps back, and Cloud followed, not taking his eyes off of hers. Sephora kept walking, they seemed a little shocked to be seeing him go with her willingly, and that was ok. Meant they wouldn't try to do anything about it. Then, Yuffie decided to make her move.

"GO GO GO GO!!!" She yelled to the boys, waving them forward. Yazoo tackled Yuffie as she was moving to throw her weapon, and Loz was wrestling with Vincent. She turned to look at Cloud again, and an arm landed across the back of his head. "It took you long enough," she said.

"Sorry, I was busy. They HIDE this stuff now." He gestured to the box between his feet.

"Let me see it."

He bent down, pulled out one of the glowing balls and handed it to her. She rolled it around her in hand.

"Ok…well…what do I do with it?"

"Here, watch." He took it back, cupped it in his palm, and pressed it into his opposite arm.

"Oh OUCH."

"It's not so bad," He handed her another one." Here ya go."

She followed what he did, and pressed it into her left arm. She suddenly felt the power of it in her. How interesting.

"Now what?"

"This. Watch." He held up the arm he'd pressed the materia into, and his arm started to swirl with energy. Something that looked like lightening crept up his arm, and then a ball of it shot out from his hand, landing right next to Cid and Tifa.

"Wow…"

"Yeah, it's useful, as you can see. Try it out."

She did the same thing he had just done, held up her arm and kind of concentrated. She felt a burning feeling, and after, a nice size fireball flew towards the group.

"That is going to be useful. But, we need to go." She looked down at Cloud. "We've got what we needed. YAZOO, LOZ!" The two them sprinted over. "Loz, pick up Cloud, and let's get the hell out of here before they regroup themselves." The four of them started running away, and Tifa, the only one that hadn't been directly attacked, ran after them. Sephora heard her behind them and looked back…

"She's right behind us." She looked over at Kadaj and held out an arm.

"What?!"

"I'll take care of her and catch up to you. Just don't lose Cloud anywhere. I promise I'll be right with you."

"You better be." He took her arm and threw her backwards. She landed a kick on Tifa and tackled her to the ground. Tifa struggled to get back up, but Sephora grabbed her hair and sent her back to the ground. Sephora was getting back to a standing position, and Tifa planted her feet on her stomach and flipped Sephora over. She landed hard on her back. It knocked the wind out of her. She found the roles reversed, and Tifa was standing over her. Tifa grabbed her by the hair and lifted her off the ground.

"Where…are…they taking…Cloud?"

"Well…that's for me to know, and you not to. Don't worry; we don't want to hurt him." She pulled her fist back and punched Tifa right in the face, causing her to drop Sephora to the crumbling pavement. She stood up to leave.

"Don't follow, Tifa, it's better for everyone."

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And there we go, its a mini update. Been a little on the busy side, and then I realized I hadn't updated in about a month an a half. Hope you like it!


	20. Chapter 20

Tifa looked after Sephora for a minute while she ran away, she couldn't believe what had just happened. She was stunned. They had Cloud. How in the world had they gotten Cloud? And how could they get him back?  
She realized Sephora was out of sight now. Probably using whatever new powers she had to get out of sight. Tifa turned and looked at the others. They were hurt and tired, they needed to regroup if they were going to try and get Cloud back. She walked over to them and just stared at Vincent for a minute, she was on the verge of crying.  
"How did they do it, Vincent? How did they get Cloud?"

"I don't know. All I know is that we have to find him before they do whatever it is they're planning on doing."

"Let's go see what Reno and Rude found out, if anything. Reno can help us with her. He seems to know her mind."

---------------------------------------

Reno and Rude walked up to Rufus, who was kind of supervising a little crew. They needed to get the wall repaired. Cloud had been right, Shin-Ra did have it's share of enemies. Open walls were an invitation for trouble.

"I take for granted that you didn't find her."

"No, she wasn't at the house. Nobody was. Cloud and his group went to see if they could find here anywhere. We came to see if you heard anything about it."

"No, but this is everywhere." He gestured to the building. "I think it's probably a little more important to fix the building and guard against everyone else that want to cause the company problems. Sephiroth and his little family is trouble, but they stay away from here unless we bring them."

"I guess you're right..." Reno found himself interrupted by Tifa.

"Reno! She took Cloud!" She ran up to him.

"What do you mean she 'took Cloud'?"

"She's got Cloud. She talked to him, made him faint, and she and Kadaj took him AWAY!"

"Oh. That's...not good."

"You've always been the master of the obvious, Reno."

He stuck out his tongue, "Thanks, Rude."

"Ok, you two," said Rufus. "Where do you think she took Cloud, Tifa?"

"I'm not sure. I know she's taking him to wherever Sephiroth is. She told me it would be better for everyone if I didn't follow, and that she wasn't planning on hurting him."

"Come on. I can think of a few more places we can look!"


	21. Chapter 21

Sephora led Kadaj, who was carrying an unconscious Cloud, into the shell house Sephiroth where Sephiroth was waiting for them. Kadaj put Cloud on the ground and Sephora cringed, afraid he'd snap out of it.

"Don't worry," Sephiroth said, "He'll be that way for a while still."

Sephora went to his side and looked up at him. Anyone watching would have gotten the impression of an animal that was eager to please it's master.

"Did I do well, Sephiroth?"

"Yes, you did. You did exactly what I needed you to." He ran a hand through her hair and turned to face Kadaj. "You know where to take him."

"Yes I do, brother."

"Well go. I'll meet you there. Make sure to keep an eye on him, and make sure they aren't following you."

"No problem." He hefted Cloud back on to his back like a rag doll and left the hut. A minute late, she heard his bike roar away.

"Sephora, you did such a good job. You're making me so happy." He bent down and kissed her. One of his amazing, deep kisses, that always made her tingle. He was rewarding her. "Now I'm going to show you something, something like nothing you have ever seen before. It's going to help us do what mother wants us to do."

"Show me," she said dreamily, almost in a daze. "I'd see anything you'd want for me to see.."

He smiled down at her, "What a good girl," he purred at her as he pulled the trap door open. "Let's go see it, then."

-----------------------------------------------------

Clouds group of would be rescuers headed through the strange forest to the Forgotten City, not really thinking about what would be there to greet them.

"So, how do we know we aren't headed for a trap?" Cid asked.

"We don't." Vincent plainly replied. "We don't know what we're getting into."

"We have to keep going...we have to do this for Cloud. He'd come for us," Tifa said, sounding more angry and determined than ever.

So with that, they carried on, headed into who knows what at the city of the Ancients.

---------------------------------------------------------

The alter was the most amazing thing she'd seen here. It was beautiful...she was in awe, yet again, by the things he'd shown her. He was standing away from here, at the front.

"I once did something very important here."

"What did you do, Sephiroth?"

"I got rid of something that was standing in my way."

"Eliminated an obstacle?"

"Exactly. That's all we do. We get rid of the things that keep us from doing what we have to do. We make the planet what we need to get what we want. What we NEED. We are the superior race, Sephora. We are what was meant to be. Mother shows us that. Don't forget it."

She smiled over at him, "I won't. I'd never forget it. I don't forget anything you tell me."

"I know, and that's why you've been so good at this." He walked over to her, put a hand under her chin, and tipped her face up to meet his gaze. Those green eyes were as beautiful and terrifying as they had been when she first started seeing them in dreams. Had it really only been a couple of weeks? Time was melting together for her. All she knew was that she belonged with him, for all time.

"It's time to go to the next level, Sephora."

-------------------------------------

Reno, Rude, Tifa, Yuffie, Vincent, and Cid had arrived at the Forgotten City. They, however, did not know, that they had been followed. A couple of silver haired madmen had been watching them for awhile. They wanted to take them by surprise, and letting them get close seemed the perfect way to do it.

Cid pointed to the ground. "Look, tire tracks. They must have already left."

"I think only one of them did. There are many tracks leaving, and only one of them looks new," Yuffie said.

"Someone is still here. I can feel it," Vincent remarked.

"I think she's here."

They all turned and looked at Reno when he said it.

"What makes you think that?" Tifa asked him, incredulous.

He shrugged. "I don't know, just a feeling I get."

"Since when do you get feelings about that kind of thing?"

"Don't ask me...look, lets just go see what we can find, and stop giving me the 3rd degree, OK?" He started walking away.

"Um, OK." They all watched after him.

Reno kind of wandered away from the rest of them. He was looking for a way to that underground altar. The place where Sephiroth had killed Aerith. It would be a place of importance to him, and he'd probably want to at least show it to her. If he was with her, and at this point, they were all sure he was. He turned to Rude.

"We'll split up, if either of us finds anything, we'll call the other one. Look for a way to that underground altar thing. I think that's where they are."

"Alright." The two of them split up as the rest of them inspected the houses.

Tifa walked out of one of them by herself, it was the biggest mistake she'd made so far. She felt fingers weave through her hair and she was lifted off the ground before she could do anything. Loz held her level to his face.

"Hi. Do you want to play this time?" he smiled at her. "Hey! Look what I've got!" He held her out in front of him. Everyone else ran to where he was and started toward him.

"I wouldn't do that!" Yazoo suddenly spoke up from his place in the tree. "One good shake, with the way he's holding her..."

"He'll kill her," Yuffie said, horrified.

"Yes. He will." Yazoo sounded a little too pleased with himself. The group was stuck between a rock and a hard place, Yazoo and Loz right in front of them, and there was nothing they could do, or Tifa would die before their eyes.

Meanwhile, Reno was finding the hidden door to the underground altar. He knew he should have called Rude, but as soon as the trap door opened up for him in the house, he knew he had to go. Maybe he was the only one that could get through to her. Besides, the others might need Rude. He walked down the stairs, not sure what he would find.

Sephiroth and Sephora had their back to the entrance, and they were oblivious to the battle of wills going on above them. He was too busy teaching Sephora about black materia. Good little Kadaj, always bringing him what he needed. He noticed the expression on Sephoras face changed.

"Sephora?" he whispered in her mind. "Is someone here?"

She nodded and choked out "Reno."

"Quick!" he said, still in her mind. "Do as I told you and do it now."

He helped her press the black ball of energy into her arm. She threw her head back suddenly, even she wasn't sure if she was feeling pain or intense pleasure.

"What did you do to me?" she said back to him, falling to the ground.

"You'll be fine in a minute. Don't worry, let it come."

"Sephiroth! What are you doing with her!?" said the other voice from behind him. The turk...He turned around.

"Hello, turk. Do you think you need to save her? Are you going to be her hero?" he asked, amused.

"Maybe I am."

"And maybe you're the one that needs saving."

Sephora suddenly got to her feet behind him, as Reno was flicking his electro mag rod out. She very calmly walked between Reno and Sephiroth. She turned her head and looked lovingly at Sephiroth.

"What was he doing?"

"He wants to hurt me, Sephora. He wants to take you away from me."

She turned back to Reno. "Oh...Reno...what a stupid thing to do," she said a little sadly and held up her hand. Suddenly, her arm was shrouded by a swirling black mist. She contained the power of the black materia. The materia that could cause Meteor and end of the planet.

Reno could see where this was going, he started backing up slowly. "Sephora...don't do it. You don't want to do this."

She sighed. "But...I have to. He wants it." She closed her eyes, concentrated, and released a force of pure will that knocked Reno back.

"Kill him." Sephiroth said. "Kill him for me. Kill him because you love me."

She started to approach Reno, arm still swirling with that sick looking black mist.

"Shit!" Reno scrambled to his feet and sprinted back up the stairs. "Rude!!! RUDE NOW!!" He hit the door and pulled himself up, greeted by Rude. "Friggin' move, Rude, they're coming!" They both ran as fast as they could outside, and immediately hit the breaks when they saw the scene before them. Reno skidded into Rude and almost knocked him down.

"What in the hell..."

There was Loz, holding Tifa by the hair as she struggled against his grip, Yazoo was taunting the entire rest of the group as they stared in helpless terror. They all suddenly turned to look at the two Turks.

"WHAT IS THAT?" Yuffie suddenly yelled.

"The black materia..." Vincent said.

Sephora had appeared behind Reno and Rude, the black aura swirling over her entire body now. The cat pupils in her Jenova eyes were slits. She looked murderous.

--------------------------------

Yet another oddly timed update. Anyone still reading?

So, yeah, I'm still getting used to my new word program, if there's any grammar issues, I'm sorry. I'm not great with it and I have yet to find a grammar check. Let me know about them, but please be kind about it, lol. I'm good with constructive criticism, I swear.


	22. Chapter 22

"Let go, Loz." she said, hold up a hand. Loz let go of Tifa, but she still dangled in mid-air. With another hand motion, Tifa flew into the group of her friends, knocking down Yuffie and hitting the ground hard. 

"I want you all to know that the end of this is coming. If you're lucky, you'll be allowed to live to see it. I could crush you right now with only the power of our collective wills...but I'm not going to. That's not how this ends. I want you to see the grand finale...the final act. So does he. Nothing will save you at the end. Nothing, and no one."

"Cloud..."

"Go ahead, Tifa. Cling to the child's fantasy that her prince will come for her and slay the monster. Go find Cloud and just see what he does NOW."

They all just stood and stared. 

"Go NOW, before my mind is changed. Go find Cloud." She smiled. I bet you even know where he is, if you think of it."

They all slowly backed away from her, with the exception of Yazoo and Loz, of course. After they got a few paces away, they reluctantly turned their backs to her and were surprised when she didn't kill them.

"Vincent, what did she meant? We know where Cloud is?"

"They took him somewhere we've been. Somewhere we know."

"That's not her." Reno said, suddenly. "That's not Sephora. That's a puppet that looks like her. He made her do that."

"I know, Reno. Maybe we can even save her."

--------------------------------------

Sephiroth emerged from the house where he'd been hiding, and walked over to her.

"Good girl." He ran a hand over her hair. "You did exactly what you should." 

"Thank you. I only did what you'd do." She ran a hand over his arm and up to his neck. She grabbed him behind the neck, maybe a little too roughly for his taste, and pulled his mouth to hers. She smashed her mouth into his, feeling the teeth clink together. She pulled away and whispered in his ear.

"I feel so amazing."

"Absolute power," he smiled down at her. He had been right about this one. Now that she knew who she was, what she was, and what she was capable of, she was no longer scared. She wanted to do right for him, she wanted him to love her. She was the perfect vessel for power, and so willing to be corrupted. He was lucky he got to her first. She took his hand and looked up at him, eyes half open, lost in what she wanted. "Sephiroth, I need to be alone with you." 

He smiled, what a lovely way to keep control over her. "Yazoo, Loz, go find Kadaj at the North Crater. Keep watch over Cloud. I think his friends will be there soon." 

They took off as Sephiroth lead her to another house. He'd let her have what she thought she wanted, as long as it kept her tied to him. 

---------------------------------

The first place the two Turks wanted to go was back to the ShinRa building. Rufus needed to know what was going on. The rest of them decided to head out and see if they could find Cloud, if Cloud was apparently so easy to find. 

Reno burst through the door of Rufus's office with Rude right behind. 

"SIR! Sephora...Sephiroth...the black materia!"

"Slow down Reno. Take a breath and try to tell me again. 

"I saw Sephora with Sephiroth at the altar under the forgotten city. The black materia is IN HER. It gave her some kind of power...he wanted her to kill me and she didn't. She told us to go find Cloud."

"Wait...they have Cloud?"

"Oh...yeah. They do. We don't know where they have him, but the last time we got in a little fight with them, she used some kind of crazy hypnotism to take him away. They don't have him at the Forgotten City and thats pretty much all I DO know. When we just saw her, she said to go find Cloud and see how much he wanted to help us now. They must be doing something to him."

"I see. And she's got the black materia in her?"

"Yes. All she did was look at me and I was thrown backwards, she threw Tifa, too."

"Yes, all she did was wave her arm and Tifa flew through the air and crashed into everyone. We're lucky she's ok," said Rude.

"Interesting." 

"Sir, what are you thinking?"

"She'd be quite a weapon...too bad it's come to what it has. She could be a valuable asset."

"What if we save her, Mr. President?"

"We'd never be able to trust her. Ever. We have to find her, and Cloud,before they do something. Have you thought of the North Crater at all?"

"No,actually."

"I'd try there. I think that's the first place Sephiroth would think of."

"Ok, we'll see if we can find the rest of them and head up there." The two turks turned to leave.

"Reno?" Rufus called.

"Yes?" 

"Did you actually see Sephiroth?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Then hurry. Something big is going to happen. I don't know what, and I don't know when, but I know that if he's here, it can't be good."

With that, Reno and Rude went to see if they could find the others. 

-------------------------------

Tifa, Vincent, Cid, and Yuffie, sat in Seventh Heaven, trying to decide their next move.

"I think we need all the help we can get. If I can get in touch with Barrett, I think he'd be more than happy to help us out again. Especially with them threatening the kids. And I think maybe Red XIII and Cait Sith would be a bit help, too."

"I'll see what I can do about those two," Vincent said. 

"Ok, I'll try to call Barrett. Whatever we do, we have to do this fast, I think Cloud is in a lot of danger."

"Agreed," Vincent said, and was out the door. 

-----------------------------------

Sephiroth stood behind Sephora, back at the Forgotten City. There was one other thing he wanted to take care of before they left this place. He wanted to make sure that meddling Cetra couldn't interfere again. He was getting rather sick of her. The two of them were standing directly in front of the pool where Yazoo, Loz, and Kadaj had appeared the first time. Most of the black contamination from them had dissipated. It was now mostly swirling blues and greens. 

"What are we doing now, Sephiroth?"

"We're just going to take care of one more thing before we go with the others, that's all. I need you to eliminate an issue."

"Oh, I see. I'm glad you think I can..." He pushed her into the pool mid sentence. 

"That's enough of the talking," he said coldly. It was always something with her, she was always saying something.

Being knocked in the water took her by surprise, the cold of it was a shock to her. After a minute, she was used to it, and took in the way the colors were swirling around each other, in strands almost. 

"You have to corrode it. You need to damage it."

She focused on his voice, collected herself, and focused on hurting the green and blue wonder before her. She felt a little guilty, then the black materia took over. It clouded her thoughts and made her think only about hurting it. She drew in a little breath, and a little of the water in it. She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest. There was another voice in her head. A girl, it filled her head with a bright white light.

"Don't do this. You don't know what you're doing to the planet."

"Yes, I do, actually. I know exactly what I'm doing. Why would you doubt me?"

"Why do you want to hurt your planet?"

"I don't. I want my planet to work for me. I just want the planet to belong to those it belongs to rightfully."

"It doesn't belong to you. It doesn't BELONG to anyone..."

"That's enough. He's right, it's time to put an end to you." Sephora focused all her will, and his combined will. The black swirl of the poison inside her flowed down her arm again. It began to mingle with the peaceful blue and green, and started to over take it. She was hit with another pain, and she was suddenly standing in a field of bright white light, and the girlvoice was an entire person in front of her. She had dark brown hair, which looked to be braided, and she was wearing a pink dress. She looked more peaceful than anyone Sephora had run across so far.

"You have to stop this. Remember who you are!"

"I know exactly who I am! This is who I am. Part of my mothers being. I never knew who I was before, he had to show me!"

"He didn't show you the right thing. He'll lie to you. He'll distort everything and take over your mind."

"You don't know. You have no idea who he is."

"Oh don't I? He's the one that killed me. He'll kill you, too, as soon as you stop being important to him. As soon as he doesn't need you anymore, you'll be another part of the lifestream, just like I am."

"No. That's not going to happen." Black started slipping into the edges of whatever world they were in. "You're fighting a losing battle. You might as well let go." 

The girl was growing fainter, Sephora suddenly noticed a lingering smell of flowers. "They'll fight you, and they'll win every time."

The darkness was closing in, taking her over. Sephora was now focusing her entire being on eliminating this girl Sephiroth saw as a threat. 

The next thing she knew, she was thrust back into the now black water. She had won. She started to kick back up to the surface, it felt like it was taking forever. How far under had she been? When she finally broke the surface, she looked at Sephiroth and smiled.

"All done. Who was she, though, Sephiroth? I feel like I should know her."

Sephiroth looked at his pretty little puppet, the black water coursing down her face. She would do whatever he wanted, and as long as it stayed that way, everything would be fine. She started wading toward him and held out a hand.

"Well? Who was she?" 

He took her hand and helped her out. "Aerith Gainsborough, the last Cetra. She seems to enjoy ruining my plans."

"She told me you were lying to me, and that you were only using me until I wasn't useful to you anymore."

"She'll lie to you. She was friends with Cloud, what does that tell you? But you got rid of her, right?'

"Seems like I did."

"Ok then, don't worry about it. It's time to go see how Clouds doing, after one little stop."

-----------------------------

And there we have Chapter 22...should I be coming up with clever chapter titles?

Hmmm, should Aerith show up again? I haven't decided ifIhave anymore for her to do...

I should stop working on this at work...distracting. 

And I repeat what I said about corrections in spelling and grammar, constructive criticisms welcome :-)


	23. Chapter 23

Reno did something he never does, just burst into Rufus' office without knocking, or being invited.

"Sephora...Sephiroth...BLACK MATERIA!" He yelled, out of breath from running the whole way.

"Reno, slow down, take a breath and try again," Rufus said.

Reno took a big breath and started over. "I _saw_ Sephiroth with Sephora, they tried to kill me."

"How did they try to kill you?"

"Sephora has the Black Materia INSIDE HER. Sephiroth did something to her..."

"It's true. She almost killed Tifa with it," Rude said.

"And Sephiroth is definitely here? And with her?" asked Rufus.

"I saw them both with my own eyes, sir." Reno replied.

"That's not good. Especially if they still have Cloud."

"They do. She told Tifa to go find him and see how much he wanted to save her now. They're doing something to him."

"We have to find them before whatever plan they have goes into action. I think I might have an idea where they are."

"What are we waiting for then?" With that, the three of them, two Turks and their president, took off.

Tifa, Vincent, and the others where filling in Barret, Red XIII and Cait Sith.

"So, Sephiroth found a way, ya say?" Cait Sith said from his place on Red XIII's head.

"Apparently," Vincent said.

"And it all has something to do with this damn girl?" Barret said, with his usual flair.

"Yes, she's part of him. She has Jenova cells, the Remnants consider her their sister, especially Kadaj. He seems to be most protective of her."

"So if we take out either of them, it'll possibly effect the other," Tifa said.

"Yes, but it's going to completely enrage Sephiroth if she's gone. And we all saw what she's capable of. I think we'd be better served to take out the three Remnants. It might draw her out on her own."

"Agreed."

That's when they heard all the commotion outside.

As it turned out, Sephiroth wanted to join Yazoo and Loz in Edge. It was just to stir up a little distraction. He'd actually left her there with them and went on to join Kadaj at the Northern Crater. Yazoo and Loz were in the center of Edge, drawing little dog monsters from nothing and blowing things up with typical maniacal glee. They were getting a certain joy from watching people scatter. Sephora used her new skills to pick one up and throw him at another one.

"What do you think of that?"

"What else can you do?" Loz asked her.

She turned to a building, held her hand up, and focused. A black ball of poison energy was released . It hit the base of the building, causing it to cant to the left severely. People were screaming and streaming out of the exits. She smiled, this is what he'd been talking about all along. The power, knowing lives were held in your hands. It was a heady feeling. She loved it. Sephora smiled over at her little brothers. "How was that? Wasn't that fun, boys?"

"Yes, it was." Yazoo said calmly.

"Do it again," Loz demanded.

"No...I have bigger plans. Come on. We're going over to that big monument...thing."

Tifa and her friends ran outside to see what was going on, and literally ran INTO Reno and Rude.

"What are you two doing here?" Tifa asked.

"We came to tell you that we think we know where they're keeping Cloud. Rufus is headed there now, but we know where he's going. He thinks they're at the Nor..." Reno was cut off by the sound of the explosion. The lot of them rushed outside in time to see what Sephora had done. There were a few buildings canted to severe directions, and the people of Edge were once again running for their lives as Sephora and her brothers gleefully caused chaos. The followed the trail of destruction to the monument. There was Sephora, flanked on either side by her "brothers", and with that murderous look in her eyes again.

"Oh, how nice to see you guys again so soon. Especially you, Reno."

"That's nice. Tell us where you took Cloud." He wasn't asking anymore.

"Reno...I can't just tell you. You have to FIND him. And from what I can tell, you aren't trying very hard." She smiled at them. "What would he think about that, Tifa. If he knew that you weren't looking for him the way he'd look for you."

"How dare you..." Tifa started to run towards them.

"Not a good idea!" Sephora raised a hand, swirling with black mist, and caused Tifa to fly backwards. "Don't try that again. I am glad you are all here, though. I wouldn't want you to miss this."

As if on cue, Yazoo and Loz both started summoning something. The ground started shaking violently and the whole lot of them struggled to keep their footing.

Sephora looked up, "Hmm...look at that..."

They looked up to see something falling, toward the earth, on fire. Just as the fire bird touched down, a dragon made of water pulled itself up from the ground and solidified.

"Leviathan and Phoenix..." Vincent said.

"Well! I came PREPARED!" Yuffie exclaimed, pulling out her own summon materia. Once again the ground shook, and then, there was a huge knight on an equally impressive horse.

"Odin, nice."

"Yeah...well...WE'VE GOT ONE TOO!" Reno yelled, producing his materia. The ground hook, thunder crashed in the darkened sky a bolt of lightning touched the ground and...

"Wraaaaaarck!"

"Oh THAT'S just great..." Reno said.

A plain yellow chocobo stood in front of them, looking as confused as they were.

"My magical summoning materia...a yellow chocobo. Not even a golden chocobo, or a black one. Yellow."

The chocobo looked up at Odin, Leviathan and the Phoenix, then back at Reno and Rude.

"Wraaaaaaarck!!", and with that, it ran off.

"Damn it, you stupid chocobo! Get back here!" Reno started to run after it. Rude just put his head down and rubbed his eyes.

"Reno...you can't chase down a chocobo."

He stopped and just stood there, watching the chocobo run away. "I've been beaten by a chocobo..."

"Outsmarted, even!" Yuffie said. "That's ok, Reno. Odin can handle it!"

I personally, love the chocobo stuff. I don't know how well it actually came off, but in my head, it was comedy gold.

Maybe I'm simple.

As always reviews are appriciated, constructive criticism welcome. :-D


	24. Chapter 24

"Oh, is that what we think?" Sephora asked. "Lets see...have at it boys." She snapped her fingers and the two summons monsters charged.

Yuffie looked up at Odin, "Show 'em who's boss..."

Odin charged and crashed into Leviathan, sending water every which way. Phoenix sprang into action after that, shooting fire at the two of them, apparently not aware of any alliance between it and the water dragon in front of it. Fireballs hit one of the buildings behind Tifa's group. Yazoo and Loz's eyes widened.

"That's why I like this one..." Loz said in wonder.

They watched as the three monsters continued their battle. Leviathan seemed to be getting the best of the other two. It was overpowering Odin and just extinguishing most of the Phoenix's attacks. The important thing, Sephora thought, is that she was doing exactly what she wanted. Destroying Edge and creating a diversion so Sephiroth could do whatever it was he was doing. She smiled as Odin was knocked down by Leviathan, right onto a group of buildings. She wondered if these people would rebuild again after this. She was snapped out her thoughts by a sudden rumbling...

--

At the Northern Crater, Sephiroth had just joined Kadaj.

"Hello, Kadaj."

"Brother!" Kadaj exclaimed, clearly happy to see his "big brother".

Sephiroth smiled a little. This one was so easy. Kadaj was so eager to make him happy, to please him.

"Is he still here?"

"Oh, yes. He's not going anywhere."

"Show me him."

Kadaj lead Sephiroth over to a little cropping of rocks and there was Cloud, behind them, still out of it. Sephiroth put his hand on the shorter mans shoulder.

"Good job Kadaj. I'm very proud of you."

"Thank you, brother," Kadaj gave him a quite genuine smile. "So what do we do with him now?

Sephiroth hefted Cloud over his shoulder. "Come on. I'll show you."

--

Reno watched everything from a safe place under fairly stable pile of out of the way rubble. Things were not looking good. That rumble they'd heard had been the beginning of an explosion set off by the Phoenix. Damn fire...that was the problem with it. At least there was plenty of water around from Leviathan. There was actually a little too much water, anymore and there would be a little flooding problem. And add to that some giant riding a REALLY big horse, and you can see where there might be a slight issue. He looked across the way to where Sephora was bunked down with Yazoo and Loz. Her green eyes flashed as she looked at him and she smiled. She must have been really enjoying all this, especially with Odin being vastly overpowered by Leviathan and the Phoenix. Stupid chocobo anyway...

Sephora raised an eyebrow at Reno. She knew what he was thinking. This was really going well for her side at this point. Leviathan and Phoenix would have Odin in just a few more hits. That's when it happened...Another rumble...Reno saw Sephora and her brothers were bracing themselves for another explosion, and he did the same with his group. Then he heard it, the first one distant and alone, the second one a thousand times more powerful.

"WRARRRRRRRWK!"

"Noooooooooo...it can't be..." Reno said, shocked.

"I think it is..." Yuffie replied.

Sephora, Yazoo and Loz had a completely different view point then they did,and from the looks on their faces, they did not like what they saw. Sephoras eyes had widened to a point that would have been comical under any other situation. "OH SHIIIIT..." then she was down out by the rumbling as whatever it was got closer. Yazoo and Loz poised to attack, and she pushed them back. He thought he saw Loz mouth "Why?" and Sephora reply "TOO MANY!"

Reno raised an eyebrow, stumped. "Too many?" He said to Rude, "What the hell does she mean?"

Rude shrugged at him,and over his head, Reno saw it. The little yellow chocobo that had run away from the battle was back.

"RUDE!! OUR CHOCOBO!"

They all turned to look at the chocobo,and had brought with it an entire fleet of chocobos of all colors. There black chocobos, blue chocobos, yellow, red, and even a mythic gold chocobo. All at once, these birds jumped at Leviathan and the Phoenix, taking them off guard.

Tifa looked at Reno and Rude. "Are they..."

"Um yeah," Reno said, cutting her off. "They are."

The chocobos had Leviathan and Phoenix in dire straights now. They had the two bigger monsters pinned against buildings and appeared to have the upper hand. Reno looked across the way to Sephora and her brothers. She looked back at Reno and raised an eyebrow, suddenly, he heard her in his head.

"OK, that's fine for now. You can win your unimportant little battle. We will win the war."

She turned to Yazoo and Loz, he couldn't see or hear what she said to them, but a second later, they were taking off away from the chaos.

"We have to go after them! They're going to where Cloud is, I know it!" Tifa yelled.

"We can't do that right now, Tifa. We need to make sure this is taken care of. We can't just leave the city to this," Vincent said.

"I think it's being handled," Tifa said, gesturing to the chocobos, who were releasing all he chocobo fury they had.

"Maybe we can help them speed things up?" suggested Reno.

"Well then let's do it, dammit!" Barrat yelled, eager to finally get into things.

The whole lot of them charged into the thick of things, fighting passed chocobos and getting to the two summoned monsters.

Reno looked over at Rude and nodded. The two of them ran up Leviathans tail and to it's head.

"Rude?" Reno said, whacking the electromag rod into the monsters head.

"Yeah?"

"Is something about this a little hilarious, or am I alone on that?"

"No. It's kind of funny."

"I thought so," He said, jumping to avoid an incoming chocobo. "I bet the three of them didn't expect this."

--

Sephora, Yazoo and Loz were high-tailing it to the northern crater just as the good guys were deciding to help their feathered friends. To say they hadn't expected to be beaten by chocobos was an understatement.

"He's not going to be happy with you," Yazoo said to Sephora, tauntingly.

"He's really not. He's going to yell at us," Loz said sniffling.

"Don't cry, Loz."

"Yes, you two,thanks so much for the update. I KNOW he's not going to be happy. I'll have to deal with that later. Lets just keep going, I think of how to break it to him nicely."

--

--

Yes, I still think the chocobo thing is hilarious.

Anyway, is anyone still reading? I hope to have more up this week! Thanks for the patience! Don't forget, I need that concrit!


	25. Chapter 25

Sephiroth continued with what he was doing, using a nice combination of mako and his own blood to truly take over Cloud. He didn't know, however, that certain corporate presidents might be watching, and waiting to make a move.

"Pick him up, Kadaj."

Kadaj slowly lifted Cloud to a semi standing position, leaning Cloud against him. It wasn't easy, the blond was much taller and heavier than he, but he wanted to make Sephiroth happy. Sephiroth got right into Clouds face, and started speaking.

"Cloud. Wake up, Cloud, I have a job for you. Come on, like a good boy..."

"Brother, should you get that close?"

"He'll be fine. We took his weapons, and if all goes as planned, he'll be happy to see his family." He put a hand on either side of Clouds face and yelled, "CLOUD!" He let go and sighed. "Fine, be difficult, as usual." Sephiroth raised a hand and slapped Cloud as hard as he could across the face. "WAKE UP!"

Cloud woke with a start, pushing back enough to send both himself and Kadaj tumbling to the ground Cloud landing hard on the more delicate Kadaj.

"Sephiroth?"

"Cloud." He held out a hand and Cloud reached out, shakily, to accept it.

"OK, that's enough. Hold it right there." Rufus stepped out his hiding place, holding a gun. "Leave him alone, Sephiroth."

"Well, well, Mr. President. To what do I owe this honor?"

"You heard me, Sephiroth, back off."

"I'm not doing anything to him, am I?" He pulled his hand back. "He's free to do as he wants. Aren't you, Cloud?"

Cloud stood up, unsteadily, by himself and looked over to Rufus.

"Go ahead, Cloud. Tell him."

"I'm fine, Rufus."

"See?" Sephiroth shrugged. "Everything's fine. Here, watch this." Sephiroth walked over to where Kadaj had left the sword. He took it back over to Cloud and handed it to him. "Here, Cloud."

Cloud took the Buster sword and just kind of looked at it, like he was unsure as to what to do with it. During this whole exchange, Kadaj had somehow managed to slink off without Rufus's noticing him. He was now sneaking up behind the unknowing president, double bladed Souba in hand. Sephiroth was consciously trying not to look at him, and hoping Cloud was doing the same. Maybe they could get rid of this irritant once and for all. Then, Cloud let his eyes wander to Kadaj....and that was all it took. Rufus turned in an instant and knocked the sword from the little remnants hand. In another quick motion, he twisted the arm around to Kadajs back, and held it there, while he pointed the gun under his chin.

"Don't make a move. I'll kill him,and I happen to know you need him."

Rufus was, unfortunately, right. Any other time, Sephiroth probably would have made any move he pleased. Add to that the fact Kadaj probably would have gladly sacrificed himself for his "family", and this whole thing wouldn't have been an issue. Alas, he did need Kadaj, so now he had to really think about it, and hope Cloud wouldn't do something stupid. Although right now, he was still confusedly staring at his sword. If they had a distraction, he might be able to work something out.

That was when Yazoo, Loz, and Sephora happened on the scene. Sephora saw her sweet little brother, with a gun held under his chin, and it enraged her. Sweet little Kadaj....no one was going to hurt him. She motioned to Yazoo and Loz to hide themselves and silently walked over to Rufus. She held a hand up behind his head, the black aura swirling around her.

"Rufus. Kindly let my sweet little brother go. And please, don't try anything stupid, just let him go. You have no IDEA what I'm capable of these days, and Yazoo is somewhere you can't see, with his pretty little gun trained on your head. Now, I don't want to kill you, as you could be useful to us, but I'm not going to cry about it if I have to. Let Kadaj go now."

Rufus knew he was beat for the time being and did the only thing he could do. He let Kadaj go.

"Wise choice Mr. President. Take him, Loz."

Loz appeared from behind her and took hold of Rufus's neck, squeezing. He was hitting a nerve that would either kill the man Reno and Rude so respected, or simply knock him out. It really didn't matter to him. Sephora turned to Kadaj, on the ground and stunned from the rough treatment. She extended a hand and pulled him up.

"He took me by surprise or I would have had him! You should let _me _handle him!"

"In due time, he'll get what he deserves, brother." She smoothed a piece of silver hair behind his ear. "It's okay, Kadaj."

Sephiroth watched as she went to Yazoo and Loz, trying to nurture them. Loz was holding an unconscious Rufus Shinra up by the back of his neck. She instructed him to put the president down, and congratulated him on a job well done. She was letting Yazoo know he'd be able to do his part soon. Sephiroth wasn't sure how he felt about all this. Sephora turned her attention to him, walking to where he and Cloud stood. Cloud was still staring dumbly at his sword.

"Is he going to be okay? He doesn't seem like he's going to be any use to us."

"He'll come out of it."

"Right." As she turned to walk away from him, he grabbed her by the elbow and turned her around.

"Sephora, you wouldn't be questioning me, would you?"

"I'd never do that."

"Good. I just want to make sure you know how much you mean to all this." He smiled down at her, doing his best to make her feel important to him. "I can't do it without you." The half-truth slipped out, and he smiled. He leaned down and kissed her deeply, reminding her why she was there in the first place. Her tongue darted into his mouth, moving against his. He felt her press herself against the front of him, and released her. "I just don't want you to misunderstand your part in the plan, as it were."

She smiled up at him, dreamily. "I would never do that."

"That would be tragic. I'd hate for anything unfortunate to happen to you." He took her chin in his hand and turned her face up to his. "I don't want you to forget."

"Oh, I don't forget the things you tell me, Sephiroth."

"Then we don't have a problem." He turned to Yazoo and Loz. "You two stay here. When Clouds friends come, kill Shinra. Kill him in front of them, make it painful."

"Yes, brother," Yazoo said, smiling at the thought.

"You can catch up with us. Come on Cloud, Kadaj." Cloud followed along obediently, silently. Kadaj followed. He took Sephora by the wrist and dragged her along. She looked back at her other two brothers, the two who she had come to love. She had a feeling she was looking at them for the last time.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Tifa, Reno and Rude were the first to reach the opening of the cave at Northern Crater. They all took careful looks in, suspecting a trap.

Tifa, Reno, and Rude reached the mouth of the Northern Crater first, peering in, suspecting a trap.  
"I don't see them. Where do you think they are?" Tifa asked.  
"I don't know. I don't know what they're thinking or planning. It seems like they're either leading us on a wild goose chase or this is some kind of trap. I'm pretty sure we're walking into something. What do you think, Rude."  
"Most likely. I don't think they'd more or less lead us here and then not have something planned."  
Yuffie, Barrett, Nanaki, Cid, Vincent, and Cait Sith soon caught up just as the three of them were staring at each other, deep in thought over what to do next.  
"What's going on, Tifa? Did something happen? Did you see them?" Yuffie asked.  
"No, from what we can tell, there's nothing here."  
"What?? There's nothing here??"  
"We should go further into the cave," said Vincent.  
"And what if it's a trap?" Reno asked.  
"Then we walk into a trap, and maybe we stop them from doing whatever they plan on doing, and maybe we don't. At least we tried. If we don't try, then everything we've ever done is going to mean nothing at all. Besides, they still have Cloud! We can't just let them have him! He'd help us, now we have to rescue him!" Tifa said.

They all looked at each other for a minute, unsure what to say or do.

Reno sighed, "She's right. We can't just let them do this. Not only for Cloud, but Sephora, too. For her mind, and whatever's left of the real her. Let's go."

----------------------------------------

Yazoo and Loz may have been enjoying the task at hand a little too much. They had Rufus Shinra propped up against one wall of the cave and were taking turns discussing how to kill him the most effectively, with the most spectacle.

"I could stab him with the velvet nightmare, then shoot him. He'd explode, kind of," Yazoo offered, smiling.

"You could throw him in the air, and I could beat him to death," said Loz, throwing punches to the air.

"We _could. _But _exploding _him sounds more fun."

"Fine...." He looked rather dejected,"...but what do _I _get to do? I want to hurt him."

"You have to grab one of the other ones. Someone we can hold and threaten, make them stand still while we kill this one." He gestured to Rufus.

"Why do I have to do that?"

"You're faster, and I have the weapon..."

"Fine," Loz said begrudgingly. There was a noise at the front of the cave. "Here they come now. Let's do this."

"I'm so glad they gave us this job!" Yazoo said, taking his position.

-------------------------------

Back again! Hope everyone likes this chapter. I know it's been forever.

Again, for my own hilarity. Couldn't you just see Yazoo and Loz plotting the most fun way to kill someone?


	26. Chapter 26

Reno, Rude, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid, Vincent and Yuffie were venturing further into the cave. They knew they were walking into some kind of trap. Tifa was carrying on for Cloud, as he would do it for them, and they all knew he would. Reno just wanted to stop whatever was going on, and maybe save Sephora. They made their way through, fighting off all the small cave dwelling animals, wondering what awaited them further in.

---------------------------

The first thing they saw upon rounding the corner was Rufus. Dirty, unconscious Rufus propped up against Yazoo. The Remnant smiled at them, his gun pressed against the presidents head.

"Say hi Mr. President!" He grabbed Shinra's hand and made him wave at them.

Rude looked vaguely like he was going to vomit, and Reno...Reno was as visibly enraged as anyone had ever seen him.

"You son of a bitch. I'm going to make you sorry you ever decided to do this." He took a step closer, and as he did, he saw Loz run passed him. Loz was going for Yuffie, he realized. Reno looked at Rude and shrugged. Rude pointed back towards where Loz was going. In a split second, they decided they had to go help the others. Yazoo would probably make good on his threat to shoot their boss if they came closer. They got into the fray in time to see Tifa get punched unconscious and see Loz grab Yuffie by her short hair. He wrapped and arm around her neck and held her to him.

"Go ahead. I'll break her neck. I'm going to anyway, but give me a reason to do it." Loz looked at Yazoo, "Let's kill them at the same time."

"Good idea." Yazoo cocked the trigger on the gun. Just as he did, Rufus Shinra seemed to come back to life. The president spun on the other man and aimed his own, hidden gun right Yazoos head.

"SIR!" Reno and Rude both yelled. Their boss barely glanced at them, but nodded toward the situation in front of them, wanting them to take control. Reno and Rude looked at each other and nodded, and without skipping a beat, Rude when low, Reno went high and knocked Loz off his feet. A slightly dazed Yuffie rolled away from him, and the confused Remnant heard a click from behind his head. Vincent had taken exception. Loz looked to his brother, Yazoo still had his gun trained on the presidents head, and the president was returning the favor. Loz did the only thing he could think of. He quickly took to his feet and ran at Rufus Vincent shot, and the bullets from Cerberus grazed his arm. At the sound of Loz crying out in pain and surprise, Yazoo glanced in his direction. Rufus took advantage of the distraction and took matters into his own hands, planting a bullet in the middle of Yazoo's forehead. The long haired remnants eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to his knees. His physical body was evaporating. Yazoo was going to see Mother. From what Loz could tell, it did not like very fun. While everyone was distracted with Yazoos messy, dramatic death and rise to the lifestream, Loz decided he needed to take the opportunity to make his escape. With one fluid motion, he knocked Cerberus out of Vincents hand and was up and running. Tifa, just recovered, started after him, and realized it was pretty much useless. He was long gone. She turned to find everyone watching as Yazoo's corporal body emitted swirling green streams of light. He was going into the lifestream, so it seemed.

"This is crazy. What could possibly be next?" Yuffie asked as she watched him disappear.

-----------------------------------------------------

I'm sorry that ones so short. I'm hoping to have another chapter or so up before this weekend. I'm moving south on Saturday, so stuffs going to be crazy for a bit. Thanks again to everyone thats reading! If you have any concrit for me, or just want to say hi, please comment!


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